Evening star., 1935-07-28
EFFORT TO SAVE LEAGUE
DUE In NEXT FEW WEEKS
Both Britain and France Want to Pre-.
serve Geneva Body as lnstru.
ment of Own Policies.

PROFESSIONAL CTOOES dllu ny civil ocIf-
ants. For them the sin of imperial
ism, If it exists, lies in celebrating
its military aspects. Let the Duce
make war if he wants to-to that
point the British have now come-but
in the interests Of salvaging Geneva,
so necessary in British eyes, let him
call it anything but war and carry it
on quietly.
Mussolini, however, realizes that he
has the British and the League at his
mercy and he has little kindly feeling
for either. Against the British he is
resentful because they have attempted
to interfere with his plans Against
the League he is irritated both because
its basic pretensionS are contrary to
Fascist conceptions and because the
British have tried to make it an in
strument of their national policy to
block Italian plans in a corner of the
world where another peoples i'm
perialisE is annoying to their own.
He can, too, strike at Geneva either
way, by quitting or by staying. If he
quits, it becomes a minority affair so
far as the great powers are concerned.
If he stays, the moral injury is almost
more considerable.
Hitler Clash Awaited.
Yet 1t is far from impossible that
the British, if they can mollify the
French, will be able to rig up some
face-saving compromise. And, angry
as the French are with the British
over the German naval treaty, they
still identify in Geneva a useful in
strument fo- exploitation when the
inevitable clash with Hitler comes.
But it is not going to be quite as
easy to mollify some of the smaller
states who have taken the League Serl-
ously, not as an instrument of ma
tional policy, but as a means OF
international action to prevent war.
The Scandinavian states Holland and
Switzerland may protest and their
protest will be damaging because their
sincerity cannot be doubted.
1t is going t. be awkward, too, be-
cause the guns may just be beginning
to go off in Ethiopia as the annual
assembly of the League meets In
Geneva. 1t was the japanese attack
at Shanghai which blighted the OPEN
ing weeks of the Disarmament Con-
ference. And a similar overture to
the assembly session is bound to have
quite as disillusioning consequences.
Conceivably Italy will still be a men,
ber, but the sight of the Italian dele
cation with their bags packed ready
to take their leave if the League ven
lures to indulge in words of reprimano
where its duty is to resort to &C.
tion-will not be inspiring.
In reality, the major question to-
day is not what the League is going
to do to Italy, but what MuSsolin
means to do to Geneva. He has il
completely at his mercy. If he spares
it even to the extent of letting the
British patch up some compromise
that is, too, the most that can be
expected of him. And if he does this
it will be because, like the French, he
thinks it may later be exploited against
Germany profitably. In word, while
he will take Italy out of the League
at the first motion of censure ovel
his Ethiopian enterprise, he remains
ready to use the League to pronounce
moral condemnation if Germany un-
dertakes any operation in Austria.
Instrument Of National Policy.
England, France and even Italy
therefore, continue to look upon the
League as an instrument of nationa
policy. It is a card they hope tt
use for their own several nationa
policies. which are by no means identi-
cal. None of them is prepared tc
contribute anything to the employ
ment of the League to serve the ends
for which it was designed-namely to
prevent wars wherever threatened
But each of them has war it would
like to prevent and would also like
to get the help of other countries ir
preventing. Within limits, therefore
they are bound to continue to bolster
when their own interests are not
compromised tnereDy.
AS practical matter, however, II
Italy gets involved deeply and dis
aStrously in Africa, Germany is almost
certain to return to her Austrian ad-
venture of last Summer, suspended
only because of the united front Gre
ated against her by Italy, France, the
Soviet Union and the Little Entente,
with the moral support of Britain.
Under such circumstances new effort
would be made to invoke the League,
and French influence might be sufi-
cient to obtain for an action of re-
preston the moral sanction of the
League. But the practical value of
that sanction could hardly be great
now after the Manchurian and Ethio-
plan episodes.
Actually, like Humpty- -Dumpty, Cen
eva has suffered a shattering fall.
The illusion of an international au-
thority cannot be restored. 1t is evi-
dent now that nations act Just as
they did before the World War. They
pursue their national interests with
out regard to treaties and without
concern for world peace. They are
ready to make war today as they were
Il years ago. Under such circum-
stances, the intervention Of Geneva
merely leads to the withdrawal Of the
nation whose action the League seeks
to restrain. And, having interviewed,
Geneva has to sit idly by and see its
Intervention demonstrated to be futile.
The reason for this complete COL
lapse of the postwar peace machin-
cry lies, of course, in the fact that
war remains the only means by which
peoples can obtain things they will
not go without. Germany, Italy and
Japan can acquire the lands and
natural resources necessary for nation
al prosperity only by conquest. The
alternative is poverty peace
and they will not accept it. The ma
tions which put peace above war are
those which have already had their
wars of conquest, got their terri
tories and are now fearful lest q part
of the booty escape them
Because the British, French and
Italians still want to use Geneva for
>1s.