Evening star., 1939-10-09
Peace or Long War
Expected 10 Be
Decided Soon
Inuction on West Front
Almost Provides Busis
For Negotiations
BY COL. FREDERICK PALMER,
Noted Military Expert.

Notec Mllltary expert.
If World War precedents and
warnings and human history in war
apply, we shall have peace soon or
long war. The big human element is
the soldier masses facing each other
on the Franco-German frontier. The
little action there is almost truce
as basis of negotiations.
The soldier masses may have q
decisive influence on what Paris is
saying in secret to London, what
both are saying to Rome and Berlin
and also to Moscow, and aid the dip
lomats in the tickliSh face-saving
job of framing concrete proposals
whose acceptance by one side or the
other will not be a confession of the
defeat of its war aims.
At the outset of the World War,
the German war aim was the drive
through Belgium to crush France
and get the English Channel ports
as bases for future attack on Brit
ain. The British and French war
aim was self-defense. In the criti-
cal days of the Marine, this COM
pletely absorbed the two peoples and
their army and navy staffs. Other
aims, such as the determination OF
Kaiserism and Prussian war-lordiSm.
became more conspicuous with the
progress of the war. Against the
German drives of 1918, 'self-defense
again became the central aim, With
PRAYERS that the American Army
should arrive in time.
New Nations Created.
Under the armistice terms the
central powers had to disarm. The
allies now had the power in the
treaty of Versailles to apply Presl-
dent Wilson's policy of self-deter-
mination, which served French in
terest particularly, in creating the
new nations out of the dismembered
Hungarian Empire and slices
of the German and Russian En-
pires to form an iron wall around
Germany.
With the Kaiser off the throne,
the allies had won their expanded
war aims with the aid OF the Amer
lean Army, which left no detach-
ments behind in Europe to police
the frontiers of the new states.
Since the population of each was
outnumbered by the great body OF
the Second Reich, reinforced by the
powerful German military tradition,
the future day was provided for
Adolf Hitler of the Third Reich to
robble them up in detail.
In this war the declared war aim
of Britain and France was to rescue
Czecho- -Slovakia, incidental to the
defense of Poland, which implied
the defense also of other small
states from a similar fate, and also
the elimination of Hitlerism from
Europe.
Americans Fought to Get Kaiser.
In the World War the French and
British soldiers had little interest in
any talk about the creation of these
new states. The idea was Mr.. Will
sons They were fighting for French
and British security. Our soldiers in
France soon forgot other slogans.
They were fighting as Americans,
out to get the Kaiser and win the
war so they might return home to
apple pie, ice cream and Sunday
chicken dinners. Soldiers war aims
are always simplified in this fashion
before they have been long at the
front.
Shall Britain and France spread
their war aims to include the rescue
of the three little Baltic states and
the stretch of Poland which Stain
has taken into camp? Hitler might
agree to the establishment of a
small buffer Polish state, but, if he
gave up Silesia, the Corridor and
Czecho-Slovakia, not to say Austria,
he would have to revise "Mein
Kampf" or at least add an explana-
tory supplement. His triumphs
would be pricked balloons.
Turn to the masses of soldiers on
the western front. The French are
not now fighting to save the soil of
France So far it is secure. In that
sense, they have won so far a COM
paratively bloodless victory. In sight
of the fields of white crosses of SOL
dier dead, how far are they inclined
to go through the same battering,
murderous ordeal as that of the
more than four years of the World
War for the sake of remote Czechs
or Poles? Or the German soldiers,
in order that Warsaw or Prague
shall remain under the Nazi flag?
Secret Parleys Believed On.
The cynical remark one hears in
America, where the people get more
war information than in any one
of the belligerents within the CEN
sorship bounds, that this is a
phoney war" and the comment,
There's something going on behind
the scenes that we don't know" in
tuitively express the conviction that
secret parleys have been proceeding
and lately become more active.
Some five-power arrangement by
Britain, France, Russia, Germany
and Italy might be patched up.
Stain may pose as having made
Hitler see new light. Both may
have discovered that their associa-
ton has reformed their characters
and that they may be trusted
hencefOrth.
Now is the time for a compromise
peace if there is to be one. The
soldiers on the western front have
had enough OF the drudgery of war
to know what it will be like in a
major action. Urban populations
carrying gas masks and feeling their
way under the blackout have had a
vicarious experience of reality There
Is no urge for war as war. But the
French and British are of sturdy
fighting races, as are the Germans.
Once Hitler reinforces his peace Of
fensive with big military offensive
and the heavy casualty lists roll in,
the French, the British and the
British dominions will make it an
other fight to a finish.
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