Evening star., 1936-10-25
CAPITALS OF EUROPE
WATCH u. S. ELECTION
Majority Roofing for Roosevelt, Hoping
for International Confab I'd
on Armament.

France is quite ready to accept the
Presidents definition, while Germany
Is reluctant to do so. This definition,
the French say, can serve very
useful purpose. If the nations which
will eventually gather at Geneva
agree to q substantial reduction OF
armaments, it is immaterial whether
Germany and Japan come into line.
They may continue to have tre-
mendous military establishment if
they choose to do so. but it would
become useless. London and Paris
would like to see another instrument
of peace signed together with the
disarmament agreement. And that
agreement should provide that in case
any nation becomes an aggressor in
accordance with the accepted defini-
ton, all the other nations would un-
dertake to apply, Immediately and
simultaneously, complete economic
and financial embargo against the
aggressor nation. Germany and
Japan, the two potential aggressors,
are short of money and materials.
They could not, 1t is said in Paris,
wage a war for more than three
applied against them.
1t has been pointed out to the
French that the economic and finan-
cial embargo applied by the League
of Nations to Italy was not successful.
To this they reply that the Italian
campaign in Ethiopia was colonial
war, and many OF the nations who
signed the sanctions agreement at
Geneva had sneaking feeling of
sympathy for the Italians. The gov
ernments Of Europe, including the
French government, closed their eyes
when manufacturers and producers
smuggled goods into Italy. That,
however, will not apply in the event
of German aggression, because more
important things than material prof.
Tits will be at stake. Japan is an
island which can be forced to her
knees in no time-provided British,
French and American interests are
involved. Consequently. the French
believe than an economic and finan-
cial embargo could work successfully
in major crisis-provided the United
States is party to such an agree
ment. And. they add. If the United
States takes a hand there is no doubt
that the states in South America will
cooperate At the present moment
Germany draws the bulk of her raw
materials from Brazil, Argentina and
Chile.
Slow Moving Machine.
It Is, of course, realized in Europe
that the existing neutrality act, which
Is on the statute books of the United
States for several more months, will
oppose complete economic embargo.
But it is believed that if the United
States Congress should recognize the
beneficial effects Of such a general
agreement it would save billions Of
the taxpayers money throughout the
world and lead to more settled con-
ditions in Europe, and thus there
might be little opposition to an
adaptation of the neutrality act to
the new conditions.
The fundamental idea Of this elev-
enth hour effort to pacify Europe
appears acceptable to most of the
chancelleries. Prime ministers and
foreign secretaries believe that some
thing might be worked out to the
satisfaction of all. But under present
European conditions-political rival
ries, social unrest, racial and politi-
cal hatred, suspicious and jealousies
"a peace conference is bound to be a
slow-working machine. The motives
of the participants are bound to be
carefully scrutinized; diplomatic and
political jockeying behind the scenes
is inevitable. And it is feared that
by the time the conference begins to
show results the disrupting forces Of
Europe would offset all the peace
plans by some act Of violence-before
any lawful sanctions could be applied
against them.
Furthermore, there is deep-rooted
conviction in the major European
countries that without whole-hearted
cooperation from Washington the
planned parley can lead to no posi-
tive results. This is the reason why
the first question put to an American
who visits a European capital these
days is: do you think that Roosevelt
will be re-elected?"
(copyright. 1861