Evening star., 1938-08-15
POland's Position.

The role of Poland as stalking horse
for the dictators gradually reveals it
self As feature of the agitation for neu-
tralization of the small nations. War
saws decision to abandon its place on the
Council of the League of Nations which
1t has so long striven to hold only adds
new emphasis to this fact.
Under leadership of Colonel Josef
Beck as foreign minister the attempt is
being made to lead the minor nations
of Northern Eastern and Central Eu-
rope away from the principle of collec-
tive security, and to discredt the League
in the house of its only remaining
friends-the small powers.
In this endeavor Poland is carrying to
completion the boycott of Geneva begun
by Germany in 1894 and stimulated by
Italy last fall when it served notice of
withdrawal, following Mussolini's So
Journ in the Reich. 1t means simply
that through Beck Germany and Italy
are striving to pull whatever teeth may
be left in the League by inducing the
second and third rate powers. whose
primary hope of security the League has
always been, to desert Geneva in favor
Of neutrality. But neutrality, although
1t sounds we'll, especially to American
ears. signifies only the final destruction
OF the concept Of united action against
aggressors. and consequently the release
from all restraint of the dynamic forces
which fill Europe.
The virtue which once reposed in neu-
trality has disappeared since the advent
Of the Hitlerian Reich and the creation
of the Rome Berlin axis, which brought
Fascist Italy under the dominance of
the German Fuehrer. The movement
represents now a challenge to the effort
toward right and justice in international
affairs, and isolation of the small states
from the final struggle, when it eventually
comes, between democracy and authori-
tarianism. 1t means that If Scandi-
navia, the Baltic countries, the Balkans,
and East Central Europe can be in
duced to jettison Article XVI of the
League, Covenant Germany and Italy
need have no fear of economic sanctions
when they reach showdown with
Great Britain and France.
Politics makes strange bedfellowS
among nations as well as among poll
o;a p01o 80
World War on the new principle of self
determination, should now abandon COL
lective security and the status quo, on
which it depended for so long in order
to be drawn into the sphere of its for
mer enemy-Germany- of
everything Poland ever stood for is
something more than courage.
Although Germany agreed in 1884 not
to so to war with Poland for ten years,
the causes of conflict between the two
countries-the corridor and minorities-
were not removed by any means. BY en-
HANGING the power of Germany Poland
exposes herself to the use of that power
If Germany, in the future, gets around
to demanding elimination of the corridor
and autonomy for German minorities in
Poland.
Poland's detection from the French
system of security, based upon alliances
not only with Poland but with the three
Little Entente nations-Rumania, Yugo-
slavia and Czechoslovakia-and Belgium
and an entente with Great Britain, il
illustrates how that system has crumbled
before Hitler's onslaught. Only the
somewhat indefinite ties with Great
Britain remain. Britain for her part
has no alliances on the continent, al
though it is understood that she would
rush to the help of the low countries and
France if they were attacked Thus,
Great Britain and France, on the de-
fensive, are confronted with a conti-
nent either distinctly hostile or becom-
ing neutralized in preparation for a
future major conflict.
Senator George has heard of the New