Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-07-14
BRITAIN LACKS SUPPORT
TOBLOCK ITALIAN PLANS
League Holds No Ally to Keep Peace.
Germany May See Chance to Strike
Austria With ii Duce Busy.
BY FRANK HI. SIMONDS.

engineered by the friends OF
s. the League of Nations, has
II produced an astonishing re-
suit. Eleven years ago when British
support of the protocol which under
took to make the League living force
might have insured the future OF the
Geneva institution, Parliament re-
jected this program Indignantly. And
the explanation of that rejection was
that the protocol would have bound
the British to use their money and
their military forces to restrain ag-
gressive action by any other nation.
Now, IL years too late, the British
public by the millions have voted not
merely for economic sanctions but
for military as we'll when nations in
dulge in aggression. Thus, face to
face with the unmistakable purpose
of MusSolini to make war against
Ethiopia, the unhappy Tory govern
ment in England is called upon to act
to prevent what is manifeStly a move
of aggression. Moreover, it is called
upon to act through Geneva and by
employing the machinery OF the
League.
But today only the Soviet Union and
Franco are available at Geneva as
allies of British action. The United
States has never come, Germany and
Japan have come and gone, Italy is
packed and ready to go if interfered
with. AS for France and the Soviet
Union, after British dallyingS with
Germany over naval affairs they SYM
pathize with Italy and not with Eng
land. And, in addition, they still
count upon Italian aid if there should
be a new putsch in Vienna this SUM-
mer.
Suez Canal Real Threat.
What then can the British govern
ment do at Geneva? If it undertakes
to close the Suez Canal against Italy
that cannot be interpreted as other
than an act of individual hostility,
for there will be about it no semblance
of a collective action. Actually the
British would be in the situation the
United States found herself in four
years ago, when Mr.. Stimson was try
ing unsuccesSfully to persuade the
League in general and Britain in par
ticular to act against Japan in the
Manchurian affair.
The League was originally purely
and simply an Anglo-Amerlcan ex-
pertinent. It was gravely compromised
when the United States declined to
join. 1t was further seriously injured
D,-ifi rH hat 1OCn
1924, ignored it and left it to France
and her allies to organize the League
machinery. From 1924 onward the
British have been trying to recover
lost ground at Geneva, but they have
never been successful because they
have always refused to underwrite
the League principles with their own
power.
Since 1926, when Germany entered
the League, British policy has ex-
plotted Geneva to the utmost, but
always as means of evading specific
responsibilities. The nightmare of
the British mind has been involve
ment in a new system of continental
alliances like that which existed be-
fore the war Always the British
have talked about collective system
as a substitute for the old order, but
at no time have they been prepared
to make a collective system effective.
Always they have been ready to sub
scribe to general principles. but never
to undertake precise obligations.
Affair at Lowest Lever.
Actually the fate of the League
was decided by the Manchurian cpl
sode. When, by reason of British
refusal to act, the League was dis
closed to be impotent, the decline
of Geneva set in and it has been
proceeding with utmost rapidity ever
since. The Ethiopian affair marks
the lowest level yet attained and
perhaps the lowest attainable. Having
failed to halt Japan in Asia and
Italy in Africa, how can the League
hope to stop Germany in Europe?
The answer, of course, is that it
can't, and no one will longer depend
upon it to accomplish anything when
the purposes of a great power are
involved.
But the British plebiscite over the
League has made the task of the Brit
iSh government incredibly difficult be-
cause the results of that vote vir-
tually dictate that it shall stop Italian
adventure in Abyssinia. Thus, if it
does not force the issue at Geneva,
when the question comes up, 1t will
be condemned at home. But if it
tries TO do this in Geneva, then it
can count on no aid and will simply
precipitate the resignation of Italy.
accordingly, the British friends of
the League may prove to be indi-
rectly responsible for its crowning
disaster.
S What makes the Tory situation
eyen more unpleasant is that a gen.
eral election Is in sight and its course
1t Geneva is bound to become an
issue in the approaching campaign.
The opposition can and will charge
that the national government has at
all times displayed little enthusiasm
and less regard for the League.
Measurably this accusation is true,
but it is also true that the British
government had no choice, for British
public sentiment would not support
the old association with France which
Austen chamberlain established at
Geneva, and without France Britain
was helpless. Now, moreover, this
French partnership can be restored
only at prohibitive price.
Labor Position Difficult.
Doubtless British policy will con-
tinue to wobbie until after election.
Both the government and the oppo-
sition will continue to assert that
British action is based upon the
League and again and again will re-
affirm allegiance to the so-called col
lective system After election. how
ever with italy probably in full tilt