Evening star., 1934-09-23

Germany will fall on her in the West,
and she has come to an understand
ing with France to ward of the peril.
France. quite rightly, has insisted
that to regulariZe the form Of this
association, Russia should come into
the League. 1t is not virtue, but
necessity, which has led the Soviet
to toe the line"
II X y 4
The second favorable change in the
European outlook is equally due to
the breakaway of Germany from the
concordat of the League. That break
away has brought France and Italy
into line. Next to the Franco-Ger-
man conflict, the most serious OBJ
stacle to European accommodation
since the war has been the disturbed
relations of France and Italy. The
friction between these countries has
had many sources-the status of
Italians in TuniSia, the controversy
over frontiers in North Africa and
the question of naval parity in the
Mediterranean.
But the course of events in Austria,
eliminating in the assassination of
Dollfuss. has completely changed the
orientation of Italy. Mussolini may
approve of Nazi-ism as a variant on
his Fascist dictatorship. but he has
no intention of permitting Germany
to become his next-door neighbor,
and the attempts of Hitler to absorb
Austria have driven him into an
attitude of formidable and undis-
guised antagonism. And to the ex-
tent that he has moved away from
Germany. he has moved toward
France.
The rumors of Franco Italian al
lance. completing, with the Little
Entente, an Iron ring" around Ger
many. are mischievous exaggeration,
but the relationship of the two coun-
tries has greatly improved and Foreign
Minister Barthou's visit to Signor
Mussolini at Rome next month will
doubtless implement the new feeling
of friendship. That feeling is based
on the common interest in maintain
ing the independence of Austria, and
it should go far to clear away the
causes of friction in the past.
If it leads, as is hoped here, to
naval understanding between Italy
and France, the outlook of the Naval
Conference next year will be sub
stantially improved. Thrice the cause
of naval disarmament has been baked
by the Franco-Italian deadlock-at
Washington in 1922, at Geneva in
1927, in London in 1880. If that
deadlock is removed now, the way
to establishing scheme of general
naval disarmament will be clearer
than at any time since the war.
1t is these facts which explain
the more hopeful mood prevalent in
Europe at this time. It may be said
that this view assumes the isolation of
Germany, and that an isolated Ger
many is inconsistent with a recon-
ciled and peaceful Europe That is
true. but it is only one side of the
truth. If Germany is encircled, the
circle, as the London Observer Justly
remarks, has been drawn in Berlin,
not outside" 1t is Hitler's policy
which, in alarming Europe, has con-
solidated it. He has helped to bring
Russia into the League and has closed
up the breach between Italy and
France.
This would be lamentable If it
were irrevocable. But it is not ir-
revocable. Germany has isolated her
self. She alone can lift the ban.
She encircled herself when she turned
her back on the League and the
Disarmament Conference, but she can
break the circle at any moment by
withdrawing her notice of secession
and returning to the counsels of Eu-
rope.
It is not an easy thing for a
dictator to make public confession Of
a supreme blunder in policy. and
Hitler, intoxicated with the internal
evidences of his strength, has not
reached the point of making that
confession. But events are bringing
him to that point despite himself.
Either he must throw in his lot with
Europe or become the enemy No. 1
of Europe; and, faced with this al
tentative. there can be no doubt OF
the ultimate issue. That is the rea-
son of the new spirit Of confidence
which is observable In informed cir
cles and In the press Of Europe today
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