Evening star., 1934-10-14
EUROPEAN WAR CLOUDS
LOWER UNDER EVENTS
Staying of Alexander and Barthou and
Spanish Revolt Add to Disruption
of Status Quo. =

enemies of the liberal republic led
by the clerical Jose Maria Gil Robles
to restore the republic to its pristine
purity has completely failed.
Revolt Is Suppressed.
Catalonia has been subdued and
the basque provinces have been thor
oughly coWed. The revolutionaries
fought with courage. The general
strike was real thing, not a mere
pretense. Miners of Asturias rivaled
the Irish in the desperation of their
determination not to reSubmit to the
hated tyranny.
1t was to no purpose. The hardly
won autonomy of Catalonia is largely
annulled. Former Premier Manuel
AZana is a prisoner. Thousands of
court-martialS have begun to try and
sentence the rebels, while the rebel
liouS reactionary Gen. Jose Sanjurjo
was amneSted.
The new government may continue
to be republican in name, but it will
not be a free or even democratic gov
ernment. Apparently it will under
a parliamentary facade be something
of a black or Catholic democracy,
like Austria under the late Engelbert
Dollfuss and the present chancellor,
DR.. Kurt SchuSchnigg.
1t will not be Fascist. Not quite.
1t will not be openly royalist. Not
yet. But it will definitely have ceased
to be that for which the great mass
of the Spanish people exiled King
Alfonso and oRerthrew centuries of
the darkest autocracy.
London Farley to Open.
The second scene of the prepara-
tory naval negotiations will open next
week in London. 1t will be remem-
bered that July'S first meetings were
virtually useless owing to the abb
sence of the japanese. The United
States now, as then, will be repre-
sented by Norman H. Davis, President
RooSevelt's Ambassador at Large.
Judging by present indications, the
Japanese will appear with a list of
staggering demands and the British
will tend to sympathize in granting
portion of these Japanese wishes
while the American representative
will remain alone in asking nothing
save the continuation of the status
quo.
Herein lies the problem. Davis is
far too canny and experienced a ne
gotiator not to realize the undesira-
bility of sitting in at a poker game
where you have nothing to win and
everything to lose. The Japanese, on
the other hand, intend to give nothing
and ask everything-unless they arr
putting up an immense bluff.
Five-Point Program.
According to the best information
Dbtainable here, the Japanese maxi
mum program consists of five points:
% Denunciation of all existing naval
agreements, (2) new relation of
naval parity for Japan, Great Britain
and the United States, 80 abolition
of airplane carriers, a. limitation
of the size and armaments of air.
planes, and go American abandon
ment of Notifications in the Philip
pines, Guam and Hawaii and
promise not to fortify the Aleutian
Islands, with possibly a second re-
quest for the abolition of the Brit
ish bases in Hongkong and Singa-
pore.
Obviously, if any of these requests
are made seriously without a large
counter offer from the japanese. the
time will have to come for Davis to
pack his trunks and return home,
telling the Japanese that all agree
ments are off and that henceforth
all countries remain free to build
such ships and airplanes and to
fortify such possessions as they see fit.
For a naval conference next year,
at which the Americans would be re-
duced to saying nothing but no or
making sacrifices to the Japanese
megalomania, would be far worse than
no conference. 1t is hard for neutral
observers to see any reason why the
existing naval ratio should be changed
any more in favor of the Japanese
than in favor of the United States
Peace at any price cannot be bought
at all.
(Copyright. 1934)