Evening star., 1935-04-28
FEAR OF REICH CREATES
UNITED FRONT In EUROPE
Menaced Nations Utilizing League for
Preservation of Remaining Bits
of Versailles.
BY FRANK Fl. SIMONDS.

NOUGH water has now flowed
- over the dam since the Stresa
and Geneva meetings to per-
- NIT their meaning to be
appraised effectively. That
meaning, too, is unmistakable. A
common fear of Germany has pro-
duced something like unanimity be-
tween all of the other great and many
of the smaller states of Europe. The
League of Nations has been utilized
by the menaced countries as an in
strument to preserve the remaining
fragments of the treaty of Versailles,
notably those which established the
demilitarized zones at the Rhine and
forbade German union with Austria.
Fear of Germany still renders it
impossible for the Reich to obtain
Justice at the hands of her former
conquerors. For, in principle, there
can be no denying the inherent right
of the Germans alike to equality in
armaments, to integrity of sovereignty
and to the right of self-determina-
ton. The fact that II years ago
Germany was defeated in war and
the military decision was translated
into treaty law does constitute a
juridical barrier to these things, but
no one can seriously argue that it
also constitutes a moral obstacle.
In 1881, in the face of economic
paralysis in both countries. the states
men of Austria and Germany under
took to arrange tariff union. The
undertaking was voluntary on both
sides and the question of whether
the plan was economically sound was
therefore irrelevant. But because the
neighbors of Germany, France, Italy
and Czechoslovakia. saw in a tariff
union the preface to political
fusion, they intervened, invoked the
treaty law and exploited their con-
troll of that adjunct of the League,
the World Court. to pronounce the
tariff project illegal.
Threat To Be Fulfilled.
In 1888, nearly decade and half
after the close of the conflict, Ger
many. having failed to secure recog-
milton of her claims to equality in
the means of national denfense, with
drew from Geneva and gave warn
ing OF her purpose to arm without
further concern for the treaty law in
this respect. In March of the pres
ent year Hitler put Europe on notice
that he now purposed to carry out
this threat. And, once more, as in
the case of the tariff union, the great
powers have been able to mobilize the
machinery of Geneva to pass legal
and moral judgment upon German
action.
In effect they have done even more
for they have at least hinted strongly
that in case Germany seeks now to
free herself from the restraints upon
her security inherent in the demili-
tariZed zones, the great powers, using
the League as their instrument, will
impose economic and financial sane
tions. All of which amounts to a
very simple statement, that while
Germany can never hope to obtain
justice at Geneva, her neighbors can,
when they choose, use the League to
exert coercion as well as to express
moral judgment.
Not few of the most sincere of
the remaining friends of Geneva in
the United States have perceived the
implications for it of this latest epi-
sode. Nominally the League still re-
mains a means by which the collec-
tive action of all countries to pre-
vent war can be made effective. Prac-
tically, however. it is a weapon in
the hands of the victors of the last
war to perpetuate the decisions of
49, l,;r ,~1I
even when, as in the case of the
Anschluss and ornaments. the Ger
man claim is in all respects save juri-
ideally beyond challenge.
Menace in Justice to Reich.
OF course the vicious circle is unmis-
taxable. Justice for Germany has al
ways carried with it threat to the
security Of many countries and to the
unity of several. To permit Germany
TO unite with Austria, thus creating a
state of rs millions of people in the
very heart of Europe. is to create the
most powerful state in the Old World.
To consent that this state shall arm
up to limits fixed by its own leaders
Is to furnish it with the means to
establish continental hegemony. When,
moreover, Germany has fallen into the
hands of men proclaiming expansive
and explosive policies, the peril be-
comes unmistakable
The actual failure of the League
has lain in the fact that it could not
serve as an instrument to insure the
security of the neighbors of the Reich
and at the same time do justice to
the Germans. That failure has been
due to the total unwillingness of the
American and British peoples to agree
to underwrite by force the existing
territorial order in Europe. For the
French, Italians and other nations
Immediately or eventually menaced
by Germany would not consent to
honor Germany's just demands unless
they were themselves insured by the
Anglo Saxon States against the pos
sibly evil consequences of such con-
cessions.
Today the world is witnessing the
spectacle Of the most powerful of all
European peoples actually in revolt
against conditions which are unequal
and for which there is no discoverable
remedy other than victory in war.
With the onset of the great depres-
sion. too. Germany's political wrongs
have been accentuated by her eco
nomic weakness. AS a result of the
tariff and currency policies of other
countries she finds herself unable to
sell her own goods abroad in sufficient
quantities to supply herself with the
essential raw materials and minerals
OF industry.
Suffers as IL by Blockade.
Lacking cash and credit and unable
to market her goods, Germany thus
sees herself in a time of full peace
suffering as she did in the World War
as a result of the Allied blockade. Her
populations are reduced to wearing
paper clothes because cotton is un-
obtainable. Her workers face growing
unemployment because iron, copper,
tin, rubber and a host of other neces-
sary things cannot be purchased. The
German government is confronted by
the eventual choice between foreign
war and domestic upheaval when the
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