Evening star., 1940-03-24
Welles' Home>C Coming Heralds
Hope That Peace Is Feasible
Public Is Represented as Disguised With Allies
Failure to Accept Risks That Might
Crush Hitlers Power
By Constantine Brown.

Undersecretary Of State Sumner Welles
will be in Washington next week with q
bag full of information which, If given
out, would make sensational reading. It
seems, from the few leaks which have
percolated through the strict censorship
imposed on the occasion of Mr.. Welles'
visit to the principal European capitals,
that peace is feasible.
Among other things which Mr.. Roose-
velt's star reporter is bringing back from
Europe are the details of the Mussolini-
Hitler meeting on Monday, March 18.
MIR. Welles is said to have informed II
Duce-even before his return to Rome
for the farewell visit-that the allies are
not averse to discussing peace, but that
they must stand by their slogan Down
With Hitler" It is an important slogan
for statesmen in democratic countries
because it is at the present time about
the only pertinent reason why the troops
are being maintained behind the Maginot
line
When Mr.. Welles returned to Rome he
saw Count Ciano, Mussolinis Foreign
Minister. Ciano told him that such a
preliminary peace condition could not
be accepted. 1t would mean that the
allies intend to interfere with the inter-
nal policy of the Reich. The German
people viii not be dictated to under pres
ent conditions as to who shall be at the
head of their state. If they have enough
of Hitler, they will be able to tell him so
themselves. But under no circumstances
would they accept an order from the
allies to get rid of the Fuehrer who, for
the time being, has led them to diplo-
matte and military victories. Mr. Welles
took 1t all in and made no comment-so
far as is known here
Trio Works for Peace.
There are three world powers which
are working toward peace at the present
time. They are like an evenly divided
board of conciliation; the United States,
with strongly pro-ally leanings and an
equally strong distaste for the totahta-
rian form of government; Italy an ally
OF Germany, acknowledgement in the
present war, whose antipathy for the
U. S. S. r. is waning since the last visit
of Herr Won Ribbentrop; the Papal State,
with Pope Plus XII as a comparatively
unbiased connecting link between the
United States and italy.
The situation in Britain and in France
Is precarious. There is no doubt that the
governments hope to hold out against
any peace in which Hitlerism may ap-
pear, even by implication. victorious. But
governments are not everlasting in coun-
tries which elect their Parlfaments and
Chambers, as was evidenced in France
last week with the resignation of the
Daladier cabinet.
The governments still control the press
In both countries Hence, the voicing of
discomfort does not appear on the sur
face. But there have been clear indica-
tions in the last few days that in Britain
as well as in France there is a good deal
OF grumbling at the prosecution of the
present war.
This impatience has been latent. But
1t has existed Pessimists appeared in
the French Republic and they were
prosecuted by military tribunals as de-
featists. In Britain they voiced their
impatience through men like Lloyd
OF the newspapers of that party were
commenting sarcastically on many
phases of the war.
A Deliberate Leak"
In order to quiet down this growing
unrest, news was allowed to leak out
OF the coming great role of the army of
the Levant under Gen. Maxine Wey-
gand. The news of the formation of
that army was treated as confidentially
as Barnum treated the arrival of Jumbo,
the famous elephant.
1t was a good piece of slowmanship
to talk about the potentialities of that
army, although military people realized
that its role-at the best-would be only
q defensive one either to defend Turkey
against hypothetical invasion or the
6uez Canal against less hypothetical
attack
The chance of forcing the Germans to
accept battle, not behind the strong
west wall Notifications, but in the open,
was offered when Finland was fighting
desperately and successfully against the