Evening star., 1935-09-01
LL"HERE will be no war in Europe
for three years.
Benito Mussolini leaned
- acrOSS the deSk that cararatod
Magazine Section

''And what them" | interjected quietly.
But he did not hear me. His mind had moved
ON to what Italy intends to accomplish in
Africa during that three-year truce. His
schedule for a steady advance in Abyssinia
by fair means if possible, by foul if necessary,
has been worked out in such detail that he
could even now announce three year plan of
well-developed colonial penetration.
Italy is not the only country now carrying
forward a determined policy of selfish nation
alism As moved about this summer found
each government emphasizing the same eco
nomc nationalism in tariffs, import quotas
and exchange controls the same political
nationalism which refuses broad international
commitments while seeking more narrow
national advantage in private agreements.
France encourages communism at home and
in Europe by military alliance with Soviet
Russia; England abandons the united Franco
Italian-British front. agreed upon at Stresa,
in exchange for Germanys promise never
again to challenge British naval supremacy.
Germany refuses to accept an Eastern Lo-
carno because she has territorial ambitions in
Russia, Lithuania and Poland. Russia renders
lip-service to an international comfy which
the true Marxist can accept only under uni
versal communism.
Truly, the United States of Europe which
heard Aristide BRAND expound as practical
ideal before the applauding representatives of
sixty nations in Geneva seems farther away
to-day than when Emmanuel Kant first
broached his dream of peacefully united
Europe, before the birth of United States of
America.
BY an ironical paradox it is the fear of war
and revolution that now moves governments
to do the very things which. in the past made
war and revolution inevitable. The aftermath
of l9l4-l8 plus economic distress, has re-
suited in the loss of courage for high political
adventure. The men who lead Europe today
are concerned only with immediate loss or
gain. and are unwilling or unable to face the
larger. longer consequences of the policies
which they defend - tongue in cheek.
Even England, more detached, more inde-
pendent. more powerful than her neighbors
on the continent, has lost the taste for leader
ship. An American ambassador who has
deep understanding of historic currents cited
England's present timidity as justitying his
belief that if America had played her ap-
pointed role of leadership in 1918 she would
now be guiding the world toward organized
peace.
Yet as one moves across EWope's frontiers
and senses the hard facts each country con-
fronts. it is easy to understand the practical
measures with which they are facing these
facts
Listen for moment to leader of British
foreign policy as he defends Englands
separate naval treaty with Germany. inter-
viewed both a Conservative and Liberal
leader on the same day, and once again noted
that outstanding British statesmen of diff
ferent political parties often see eye to eye on
important points of foreign policy.
I'VE would have been fools not to accept
Germany's proposal. Remember that before
the war Germany refused to accept our offer
of navy SO per cent of ours. In 1914 her
navy totaled 60 per cent of ours. Now she
voluntarily restricts her navy to 35 per cent
of ours for all time. And she will take seven
years to build up this IS per cent. That gives
Germany navy of 100000 tons as against
the $4,000 tons which the French navy has
today Moreover the French. during this
seven year period, can build as they please.
Before the war the French navy was inferior
to the German navy by at least 80 per cent.