Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-05-26

Ethiopia as there was in the American
conquest of California, the British
subjugation of the Orange Free State.
the French occupation of Morocco.
Nor was there any valid reason TO
suppose In 1919 that nations which
had not yet acquired even a modest
share of the colonial world would re-
sign their claims permanently just be-
cause they took formal engagements
upon entering the League of Nations.
1919 Theory Has Flaws.
The trouble with the whole League
idea lay in the fact that it assumed
that by 1919 every people had reached
| a point where it would at any price
| consonant with national honor prefer
peace to new conflict. On that
basis a collective system to preserve
peace was possible because such a
system would be composed of partners
all equally dominated by the same
major concern. But If now three of
the seven great powers are ready to
make war rather than accept their
present territorial limitations and
fourth is totally unready to risk war
Ny assuming any ANOPoilolollltJ lOl LIlC
maintenance OF peace, what is left OF
the collective idea?
The inherent weakness In the
Geneva institution lay in the fact that
it was based upon the assumptions OF
three countries, all Of which wanted
peace as a matter of material profit.
And exactly the same considerations
which dictated British. American and
French thought in 1919 now influence
the Soviet. Look at the map of
the world and see the difference be-
tween the possessions of 10000, 600
Frenchmen and an equal number of
Italians. Note the difference in the
real estate belonging to the IS 900 900
white people who hold the British
Empire and an equal number Of Ger
mans in the Reich. Measure the areas
which are japanese and those which
belong to Soviet Russia and recall
that there are half as many Japanese
as there are Russians.
Why should the poorer states
poorer In lands and in natural re-
sources-accept their present situation
as permanent? How could the more
| fortunate countries expect them to
renounce wars of conquest calculated
to relieve domestic population pressure
and poverty in the essential raw ma
| terialS of industry? If the League
machinery had worked, japanese con-
ditions at home would have become
progressively worse. If Geneva could
bar Italy in Ethiopia, all hope of
Italian expansion would be at an end.
But the League could not stop Japan.
cannot halt Italy and will not of itself
! be able to bar the way to German
/ expansion eventually, because nations
now. as always, will fight rather than
/ endure economic inequalities and hard
ships.
Italy Follows Japanese Lesson.
The lesson which Japan taught the
world Italy is presently going to re-
peat. and that lesson is that there is
no such thing as arresting growth by
/ preserving the status quo Of any period
as long as that status quo is unsatis
factory to a great people. You can't
make a deal between a rich man and
poor man TO perpetuate the in
/ equality Of their situations for all
/ future time and during generations
still unborn. In any given period
nations which have been forehanded
In their acquisition of territory and
resources will seek to establish perma-
nent peace because it is the sole guar
antee of their rententIon of their
| posse ssions. But sooner or later the
/ less forehanded and less fortunate,
/ failing all other means, will resort TO
/ war to improve condition they find
( intolerable.
| Nearly 2oo,000,OO of japanese.
| Italians and Germans have rejected
| the present status quo and have chal-
| lenged the collective system of the
League which would perpetuate that
{ status quo. They are training their
/ youth almost from the cradle to bear
| arms because they regard war as the
only way by which to escape from
/ material conditions which they are
resolved not to endure one moment
| longer than they must. If the United
States should now join the so-called
collective system of the League it
might. along with the French and
British, send an army or a feet to
/ drive the japanese out of Manchuria,
/ to keep the Italians out OF Ethiopia
and one day to defend Austria or the
Ukraine against the Germans
But what would any such operation
| have to do with peace? As it stands
today the collective system amounts
to a method by which the rich and
satisfied nations gang up" against
the poor and dissatisfied when the
policies of the latter threaten them
/ individually. but hold their peace
when their partners are on the prowl.
When Mussolini was not needed by
France and Britain his Corfu under
taking was crime against civilization
! and Geneva rocked with moral indig-
nation. Now that the Duce is needed
his Ethiopian program will pass I'M
challenged as matter Of law and
morals, although both London and
Paris will regret the transfer to Africa
of divisions which might otherwise
mount guard over Austria.
Copyright. 1889