Evening star., 1935-04-28

domestic products. And, in the same
way, the nations bordering the Reich
will not consent to political changes
in the treaty because that would COM
promise their own security.
What has resulted inevitably, there
fore, has been a German explosion at
home followed by the instructive as
sociation abroad of the countries men,
aced by German purposes. Today the
Reich is encircled by ring of armed
frontiers and menaced by the threat
of common action by her neighbors,
united in one or several coalitions.
France and England mount guard on
the Rhine-Italy, France and the Lit
tile Entente on the Danube. Last OF
all. in the east. France. Soviet Russia
and Czechoslovakia are framing still
another alliance calculated to main
tain the status quo at the Vistula.
League Stands by Law.
Were Germany to return to Geneva
now she could only hope for such
crumbs of concession as her fearful
neighbors would allow her. Against
any demand, however just. which car
ried with it danger to these neigh
bors. they would instinctively and in
simultaneously gang up" against her.
And always they would have the law
with them, because that law was writ
ten by themselves in the peace trea-
ties. Always, too. in the final show
down, the League would have to stand
by the law, because it is the law.
Never could it contribute to amend
the law, because the interests Of
majority of the member countries are
served by that law.
The latest session OF the League
Council has disclosed the ultimate
bankruptcy of Geneva and the COM
plete futility of the so-called collective
system. For in human affairs no in
Stitution condemned to uphold the
law-however intolerable that law may
be-and without the accompanying
power to amend it can possibly work.
Since 1919 there has been enormous
talk about the substitution of law for
war as means of settling differences
between nations, but nothing has been
said or done about substituting just
for unjust laws. and, save as that is
done, the whole process is doomed to
failure.
The japanese adventure in Man
churia disclosed the League without
the power to carry out decisions whose
justice was beyond challenge. The
German experience in ornaments ex-
posed Geneva as powerless to put an
end to conditions based upon laws
which were totally unjust. What
Japan did was a clear violation of a
treaty law voluntarily accepted by her
as by all others. But she proceeded
on her course unhindered. What Ger
many has done has been to repudiate
an unjust law imposed upon her by
force, once she was convinced no other
avenue of escape was open to her.
Seize On Hitler Action.
Alarmed by the German purpose,
which threatens them directly, the
interested European powers have
seized upon the latest Hitler action
as the justification for turning the
League of Nations into an inStru-
ment to resist any further progress
of Hitler along his indicated path
way 4OICC tIlCCC ROWClS WILL
possess in the coalitions which they
are now creating. Moral warrant for
the use of that force they are now
assuring by establishing their con-
troll of the machinery of the League.
Thus, whereas hitherto the shade of
Woodrow Wilson has continued to
hover over the old building of the
League in the new palace of the
nations, henceforth the spirit of Met
ternich will dominate.
At Stresa and Geneva, Great Bri-
tain lost her long battle to keep the
continental situation fluid and pre-
vent a reverSion to the circumstances
of 1914. And she lost her battle be-
cause. at bottom. she shared the fears
Of her former allies as to Germany.
She was ready to see German ambi-
tions in the matter of Austro- Ger
man union satisfied. She was pre-
pared to see German purposes in the
Corridor realized She was willing to
see the Germany army increased.
But confronted by German air
strength and the plans for German
naval construction, she at last ac-
cepted the German danger as real
because of its reality for her.
Never at any time did the British
envisage a German recovery which
would enable the Reich to become
again the danger for England it had
been between 1905 and 1914. But
they believed that minor concessions
would serve to placate the German
spirit and exercise the danger of
major difficulties. Always, however,
they were caught between the Ger
man determination to recover all and
that of the French to yield nothing.
In the end, moreover, they have been
compelled to identify Germany as a
prospective enemy and France as an
inevitable ally.
Foes Control League.
Henceforth the prospective foes of
Germany will exercise full control of
the machinery of the League. They
have already revealed their intention
to use that machinery to serve the
practical ends of realpolitik. The
idealists, pacifists and Utopians, who
dreamed of employing Geneva to pre-
vent war by conciliation and and
compromise, have been turned adrift.
The realistic statesmen who have re-
placed them calculate upon using it
as means of coercion to postpone
war and as moral aid to winning
the war when, as they agree is in
evitable, it does presently arrive.
1t is true that Stresa and Geneva
together render war a little less likely
in any immediate present. For they
disclose Germany today utterly iso-
lated and, within any calculaole time,
completely incapable of coping with
the aggregation Of force marshalled
against her Once more, as in the
case of the Ruhr and of the Austlo-
German tariff union, German effort
to escape from the consequences Of
military defeat and the restrictions of
the treaty of Versailles has disclosed
her friendless in fearful Europe
In fact, the other day in Geneva
she was more isolated than she has
ever been since the armistice.
To imagine, however, that as a re-
l.