Evening star., 1935-08-25
LEAGUE HELD TOGETHER
BY FEAR OF GERMANY
Powers Will Not Risk Italian Offense
by Ethiopian Intervention, Because
They Want Aid.

Japan in the name Of the Kellogg
pact. She Is also aware that there Is
no sound British retort to the inquiry
as to why British craftsmanship has
become so active over Ethiopia after
having remained so passive over Man
churia.
OF course, the answer Is that the
headwaters of the Blue Nile are in
Ethiopia and not in Manchuria, and
that British colonies almost surround
the new battlefield while they were
far removed from the old. But the
British cannot make that answer and
that enables the Fascist press to
charge British action now to purely
selfish reasons and thus destroy the
moral force of the British protest.
Even the French. too. do not fail to
note the inconsistency of British pol
icy, which, having resisted for dec
ade and more French efforts to invest
Geneva with force to act, are now
pressing to have the League act
forcibly.
Soviet to Follow France.
AS to the other countries, the Soviet
Union seems bound to follow France
at Geneva as do the nations OF the
Little Entente. Like France, all are
confronted with the prospective peril
Of a rearmed Germany. The defense
of the independence Of the Austrian
state is primarily an Italian duty. II
Italy should withdraw her veto of the
Austrian-German union it could not
be prevented easily, if at all. Assent
to Mussolini's African war of con-
quest, then, is the price those inter
ested countries have to pay to insure
that Italy will hold her portion Of the
line against German attack-and they
will give it.
But Americans must perceive how
far European policy in respect to the
League of Nations has travelled away
from the original expectation of
Woodrow Wilson. Like the Manchu-
rian affair. the Ethiopian constitutes
simple problem in preventing war
by the collective action of the member
nations of the League. Italy's action,
like Japan's, amounts to precipitating
war of aggression and Of conquest.
But France and her allies will not
today risk offending Italy by backing
the League in effective Intervention,
precisely as Great Britain would not
risk irritating Japan by supporting
Geneva four years ago.
What does worry the statesmen of
France and her allies, what is plain
to the leaders in British policy and
opinion is that the attempt to use the
League at some future date as a SYM
bol Of peace-loving world to restrain
German aggression on the Danube.
the Vistula or the Rhine Is going to
be difficult in the light of the Man.
churian and Ethiopian precedents.
For, on the moral side at least, Ger
man aggression East, West or South
is hardly likely to be more indefensible
than the Japanese or Italian OPERA
tlons which have escaped with only
verbal caStigation from Geneva. And
the Germans will be the first to point
out the inconsistency of any attempt
to employ the League against them
in ways other than 1t was used against
Japan and Italy.
Italy Would Prefer to Stay.
There Is still another amusing up-
set in the present affair. Italy has
in the past, through the mouth of
Mussolini, covered the League with
expressions of scorn. 1t is now un-
dertaking to defy League intervention
and stands ready to leave if that
Intervention even goes to the length
OF the Lytton report in the Man
churian episode. Nevertheless. the
Italians would prefer to stay at
Geneva and to keep the League in
being because they, too, see its value
as the basis for a general alliance
against Germany in case Hitler makes
q new bid for Vienna.
Great Britain, France, Italy, the
Soviet Union and the Little Entente
are all ready to use the League as an
instrument of national policy when
ever possible, but none is ready to
back Geneva always and unreservedlv
in giving effect to the principles Of
the covenant. Italy has by her own
action deliberately challenged those
principles. The British would like to
employ Geneva to protect their inter-
eStS at the headwaters of the Blue
Nile, the Italians would be glad to
use it to reinforce their interests on
the Blue Danube, the French. are
eager to utilize it in covering their
frontier at the Rhine. But there is
no country concerned with giving
effect to the principles of the League
everywhere and willing to contribute
its share Of the costs of such an
enterprise.
Since Great Britain, France, italy
and the nations of the Little Entente.
together with the Soviet Union, are
all to a greater or less extent con-
cerned with German purposes, how
ever, and since, further, they all
recognize the value of the League of
Nations as the moral facade for mill
tary agreements to resist German
plans, it is fair to surmise that once
the battle at Geneva over Mussolini's
war is over, a fresh effort will be made
to restore League prestige. Nor is it
by any means impossible that this
attempt will include an invitation to
Japan to return. After all. If Italv
remains, there is no reason why japan
should stay away.
German Events Now Watched,
Unquestionably the failure of the
League in the present crisis will prove
a bitter disappointment to many ele-
mentS In Great Britain who have
been and remain convinced of the
v1ability and usefulness of the coIlec-
tive system. Tt may even be that
the failure of the present govern
ment to support the League in the
Manchurian affair will provide a
rallying cry for the opposition in the
coming election. Meantime, however,
European craftsmanship will now have
Its attention concentrated upon Ger
man events. And in this connection
1t Is interesting to note how thick
has been the silence of the German
press in the Ethiopian matter.
ODVi0lIs1u poxI;v,