Evening star., 1936-03-22
BY CONSTANTINE BROWN.
G THIS article is urittap ri

dLlQ Shlll W
prevent the German incident" from
causing a new world catastrophe;
second. France. frightened but bold,
wants to curb Hitler and re-establish
her prestige in Europe, even at the
price of war.
The forces now playing the tug-of-
war in Europe are unequally distrib-
uted.
At one end of the rope is France, the
Little Entente and U. S. S. r. strug
Cling grimly to bring Hitler back to re-
Spect for treaties At the other end
Is Great Britain. the Scandinavian
countries and other minor European
states striving desperately to keep
from being drawn into the abyss.
On the sidelines stand Italy and
Germany, the former a signatory of
the Locarno and Versailles treaties,
concerned with her Ethiopian adven-
ture and the possibilities of colonial
expansion, and the latter, ready to
accept peace or war, whichever it
may be, refusing to bulge from her
demand for complete sovereignty over
land, and willing to accept the con-
sequences of such a determination.
People and Government Agree.
The French government and the
French people, for the first time in
many years, are in complete agreement
that the time has come to end Ger
many's defiance.
There are reasons for this rare har-
mony. The French people are think
ing about the security of their homes,
while the French government is con-
cerned over Hitler's growing power at
Frances expense.
To the average Frenchman remili-
tarization of the Rhine zone by the
ReichSwehr troops has only one mean
lng-that German guns have moved
closer to France and that his home
is now threatened. Furthermore. de-
nunciation of the Locarno pact has
created real panic. To the French
this agreement was tangible guar
antee by the Germans of their own
free will that they would send no air.
planes to destroy their homes and
cross the Rhine again to make France
the battlefield of nations.
The French government is less con-
cerned over the possibility of a Ger
man invasion than over Hitlers
spectacular rise. Hitherto Hitler has
fulfilled his program with military
precision. He announced before he
took over the government that his
national reconstruction program in
cluded the following points: Re-
armament, the reoccupation of the
the Saar the remilitarization of the
Rhineland, settlement" of the Memel
question, anschluss with Austria and
Germany's expansion toward the east.
Three Points Achieved.
The first three points have been
achieved. There is reason, therefore,
to fear that the remaining three will
be as successfully accomplished unless
Germany is stopped now.
In Hitler'S three remaining objec
tives France sees threat to the edifice
of power her statesmen have built
since the World War.
Frances Little Entente allies are
not eager for showdown. CzechoSlo-
vakia, Rumania and YugoSlavia, the
msinstays of Frances strength, would
desert her for the Reich if they felt
that her power was waning, and Sar-
raut and Flandin know it. They feel
that unless they demonstrate strength
now France is in danger of becoming
a Second-rate European power. The
only tie between the French Republic
and the Little Entente is the determi-
nation to preserve the territorial gains
Of the World War.
The main economic outlet of the
Danubian Valley states is Germany.
Rumania has more active trade relations
with Germany than with France. Yugo-
slavia is principally interested in Italy
and, while willing to stand by her
treaty obligations, already is pleading
that lack of a common boundary with
the Reich hinders effective eventual
cooperation with France. Her trade
interests, too, are chiefly with Ger
many.
But behind these national motives
France to use the mailed fiSt-the
Union of Socialist Soviet Republics
Soviet Policy III nged.
During the last two AMI half years,
since the United States recognized the
Soviet government and since the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Joined the League of Nations, the fact
has generally been overlooked that the
Soviet leaders remain faithful to
Lenin's ideal of WorlG revolution
Superficial manifestations, such as
Litvinoff drinking a toast to the King
of England or reintroduction of the
use Of money throughout the Soviet
Union, have inspired the comment:
We'll, the Russians are through with
their idea of spreading Communism
in the world. They are gradually be-
coming a bourgeois nation like the
Others" But the Soviet rulers have
not changed their ideas since the
Soviet has become respectable men,
Der of the family of nations.
In December, 1927, Joseph Stain,
dictator of the Soviet Union. said be-
fore the fifteenth congress of the
Communist party in Moscow: I'VE
must not forget the words of Lenin,
who said that our reconstruction and
its success depend very much on
whether it will be possible for us to
postpone the inevitable war with the
capitalist world. This war can be
postponed until the time has become
ripe for the capitalist nations to
start a war among themselves. 3"
The Soviet rulers are convinced that
whatever the initial consequences of
q new war may be, after a few months
of wholesale slaughter the soldiers
will turn their rifles against their
leaders and Europe will be ruled by
Eoviets of soldiers, workers and
peasants deputies.
The communication" of Europe by
propaganda and sporadic revolutionary
outbreaks failed, even during the try
ing years following the World War.