Evening star., 1940-07-07
Stimson's Prophecy Fulfilled,
i. S. Now Arms to the Teeth
World Might Have Been Spared Present Wars Had
the Geneva 1882 Conference Needed
Advice to Stop Japan
By Constantine Brown.

Eight years ago last April, Henry l..
Stimson, then Secretary Of State in
Hoover's cabinet, went to Geneva, off,
cially to help the moribund limitation of
arms conference. In fact Mr.. Stimson
had little hope that arms could be
limited. He got up from q sick bed to
make the last plea to the British and
the French not to belittle the issue Of
Japan's invasion of China. Had they
listened to Mr.. Stimson's arguments,
Europe might not have suffered it's
present hardships and the United States
might not have found it necessary to
become an armed camp. An armed
camp this country is going to be before
the summer is over.
Ramsay Macdonald, then Premier of
Britain, and Andre Tardieu, Premier of
France, received Mr.. Stimson with de-
monstrative politeness. Mr.. Stimson had
learned by that time to read between
the lines of diplomatic effusion.
"Gentlemen," he pleaded, "it is not
the pifding economic interests of certain
American citizens and institutions which
worry me. I would not turn a hair on
their account But want you to look
into the future and realize that if one
nation is permitted to break solemn en-
gagements and pacts with impunity, in
less than a decade you will have all the
other nations taking the law into their
own hands, and period of interna-
tional brigandage will follow Think of
the Germans and Italians in relation to
Europe and Africa before you dismiss
the Asiatic problem so lightly"
Tardieu Was Silent.
But M. Tardieu, who had developed
diplomatic laryngitis, could not talk,
and Ramsay Macdonald was too con-
vinced of peace in our time" which had
brought and kept the labor party in
power, to be induced to side with Mr..
Stimson actively.
Furthermore, Mr.. Macdonald was
never a rong.Premier On major issues
the first labor leader to be Britain's
Prime Minister was unwittingly a tool
In the hands of the city. Mr.. Stimson's s
warning that they might soon see Indo-
China and India endangered was re-
ceived with skeptical smile by the
leaders of the foremost "democracies, +"
as were later reports of the efficiency of
the German military machine.
Today the French Empire has dis
appeared. The military earthquake
which shook France for Is days engulfed
an empire over 100 years in the making.
The British Empire may continue to
exist in the Western Hemisphere, but
England. unless some miracle can hap
pen. may 60 under. Her powerful navy
might be able to put up hectic fight;
her newly organized aviation might
bring down enemy planes at the rate
OF three or even four to one But she
cannot withstand a concerted onslaught
OF the totalitarians in Europe in the
almost unanimous opinion of WE'LL
informed experts in Washington who
heretofore have been uncannily correct
in their estimates of the situation in
Europe.
Air Fleet Is Outnumbered.
The German-Italian air force outnum-
bers the British by at least four to one.
To the hundred or more divisions which
Britain may have today in the Isles the
totalitarians oppose no less than 300.
Some $50 submarines which form the
Italian underseas fleet can
wreak havoc with the British home fleet.
The Italian German line feet cannot be
disregarded either, now that the British
Navy is without effective French support.
The units which the French have not sur
rendered and which are still with the
British fleet are reported to be in bad
shape. The morale of the men is shot
to pieces, and the maximum that can
be expected from them is patrol or con-
voy duty-provided they are accom-
panied by British men-of-war.
Under these conditions it would take
nation Of supermen to combat sue
cessfully the attack which Hitler and
Mussolini have planned for the month
OF July. The French Channel ports and
the Jersey and Guernsey Islands are of
paramount importance for the operations
to be conducted by the Reich against the
British homeland.
World Picture Changed.
Washington is looking at the situation
realistically now. The whole world pic
ture has changed radically in less than
three months. When the war broke out
in September the world was still con-
trolled by seven major powers: Great
Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the
U. S. S. r., Japan and the United States.
One of these has now been eliminated.
Another, Great Britain, is by way of fol-
lowing the fate of her former ally.