Evening star., 1935-07-28
BY FRANK III. SIMONDS.

by the Italian venture in Ethiopia. OF
course, practically the League OF Ma
tions is now effectively removed from
the picture in so far as questions OF
war and peace are concerned. Still
available as a means of restraining
lesser states when the great powers
are agreed upon preventing trouble, it
Is now recognized to be without value
in disputes involving one or more of
the great powers.
Nevertheless for different reasons
both great Britain and France would
like to preserve for the League some
semblance of prestige since for both
it is an instrument of national policy.
For the British it is at least pre-
text for avoiding specific continental
alliances. They can solemnly protest
that the existence of collective SyS-
tenn makes it inconsistent for them to
join in any limited partnership and.
at the same time. allege that because
other members of the League will not
act they cannot be expected to act
individually. Any British government,
too, must pay lip-service to the
League idea because of its popularity
with the voting public.
The League thus supplies the British
government with a means of avoiding
action and seeming to take it at the
same time; for the French, by con-
trast, it still remains at least a hope
that when Germany follows the ex-
ample of Japan and Italy, Geneva can
be employed to mobilize the world
against the NaZiS. Naturally the
French do not put much reliance
upon the League now that it has
broken down both in Manchuria and
in Ethiopia-both times, in part at
least, because they themselves were
unwilling to help make it worthwhile,
but they still cherish the notion that
It might be able to invest with the
color of moral warrant any latter en-
terprise of theirs to maintain the
StauS quo.
Ethiopia's Expulsion Asked.
But it is not going to be an easy
Job to save face for Geneva. The
Italians have already begun to de-
mand that the Ethiopians be expelled.
They are resolved not to sit in the
Sentatives of a country with which
they are at war and whose independ-
ence they mean to extinguish. Their
situation is, moreover, admirable for
bargaining. Both the British and the
French know that if Italy leaves
Geneva the last semblance Of reality
must disappear. With four of the
seven great powers absent, namely the
United States, Japan, Germany and
Italy, only a minority would remain.
Furthermore, a Tory government in
England must find it difficult to func-
tion internationally as a partner of
the SovietS.
On the other hand it is going to
be difficult also to preserve even a
shred of decency while casting forth
state whose sole offense has been
inability to protect itself against the
aggressions of an ambitious ueighbor.
The spectacle of the League not mere
ly confessing inability to protect
weaker state but even expelling that
state at the behest of its powerful
opponent is hardly likely to awaken
enthusiasm for Geneva anywhere.
But if Italy remains intransigeant on
this point, then to save the face of
the League it will be necessary to in
vent some basis for moral condemna-
ton of the Italian victim
The basic difficulty in the situation
today is that once more the useful
ness of the league has been COM
promised by the effort to give it the
color of reality. That happened be-
fore when Sir Eric Drummond, then
secretary general of the League and
now British Ambassador in Rome, was
responsible for rushing off an ulti-
matum to Toxic, demanding that
Japan retire in Manchuria before
fixed date. Now it is Sir Anthony
Eden who, by forcing the issue over
Ethiopia at Geneva, has brought
about another exposure.
No Influence on Big Power.
The League can exert no influence
upon a great power. because it lies
within the resources of that power
to deal a deadly blow to Geneva
merely by defying its commands and
resigning. Japan showed the way,
Germany followed it, and Italy is now
exploiting British apprehensionS. If
the League machinery is invoked, out
goes Italy. But if it is not, the pres
tige of Geneva suffers quite as much
How is it possible to combine the
fact that Geneva is impotent with
the further fact that a new exposure
aster for it?
The British, past masters at this
sort of business, have been searching
for a formula. At one moment they
seemed ready to agree that Italy
should have mandate for Ethiopia,
If Mussolini would only stop talking
about war. Ethiopia was to be sup
pressed, its pathetic appeal ignored,
the League machinery was to be used
not to prevent but to palliate the
Fascist operation, but it was not to
be called war. In effect, the British
maneuver amounted to an appeal to
MuSsolini to take AbysSinia, but spare
Geneva.
But Mussolini has so far rejected
this thin subterfuge for the very SIM
pie reason that he needs war in his
business. In the past when the Brit
ish have embarked upon one of their
innumerable enterprises, indistin-
guishable in fact from the present
Ethiopian operation of Italy, they
have acted in the name of civilization,
in the spirit of assuming the white
mans burden" Usually they have set
out to serve as the trustee for peace
and order in the world and the very
idea of war Of conquest has been
abhorrent. Naturally they have
sought the profits of war of con-
quest, but they have avoided the
semblance Of aggression in so far as
possible.
Mussolini Out for Revenge.
Mussolini, however, has been prais-
ing war for more than decade. He
has been preparing his people for a
war of conquest and at all times he