The Dominion. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1919. THE DANGERS OF DELAY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 51, 24 November 1919, Page 6

The Dominion. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1919. THE DANGERS OF DELAY

The news of the week-end throws fairly clear light upon the extent to which the political tacticians of Washington have compromised the prospects of establishing world peace. It has been well said that united action by the great Powers in setting up the League of Nations would be like a stream of sunshine breaking through the political clouds that darken the whole world, The conditions now appearing arise naturally out of failure to achieve such a measure of unity as the case demands. While other nations are ready to do their part as champions of civilisation, the United States is hanging back, and the consequences, to say the least, threaten to. be serious. According to one, of to-day's messages from London it is authoritatively stated that except for the technical deposit, the Peace Treaty with Germany is an accomplished fact—that is to say, it only remains for the ratifying Powers to deposit the documents relating to ratification with the French Foreign Office—and that there is no question of altering it. It is add,ed, however, that the Allies will consider whether any delay in giving effect to the League of Nations is necessary, or whether they will proceed with the Treaty and the League of Nations irrespective of the vote of th?. American Senate and the pending decision of the United States Government. The mere fact that the possibility of delay is admitted creates a dangerous situation.. Seme ot' the worst dangers to be considered are brought out in reports regarding the growth of military organisation ir. Germany. Unfortunately it is impossible to regard these reports and the comments passed upon them by the London Times as mere sensa-tiou-mongering. There is no doubtthat in Germany and elsewhere dangers are developing which might be suppressed speodil'y by effective international action, but in any other conditions will be apt to get out of hand. In ordinary course, the ratification of the Treaty would have been followed by an early meeting' of the Council of the League of Nations) to deal with such questions as the Adriatic dispute and the appointment of commissions to delimit the frontiers of the Saar district and Danzig. "With" America- standing aloof, the Allied Power? are seriously handicapped in dealing with these and other questions which urgently claim their attention. Not only is their moral influence weakened by the defection of the United States, but l-lipy are badly placed to take blockade or other measures in enforcement of such decisions and settlements as they consider just. It is to appearance the greatest danger of all that the German militarists, by no means an extinct class, may profit by these conditions to cast Europe again into a welter of war. This peril was clearly emphasised by as well-informed and dispassionate an observer as Mr. Heiihert Hoover when he returned recently to the United States after anting as Economic Director to the Supremo War Council. Dun'rifi the last five months, he remarked, the Allies h.id been growing weaker from a military point of view, due to their necessity of demobilising thoir armies, while -at the smne time the reactionary group in Germany had bVen growing in strength through the hope of yet securing a division of the Allies.

At Iho timo I left Europe, a month ago (Mv. Hoover continued —ho was speaking early in October), German inilithrism had already re-eshiblishcd itself as a well-disciplined, wcll-ofiicered army of at least -100,000 men, largely coimreEated on tho Polish frontier, nnd even defying tho Government at Berlin. Under tho alarm of tiiis danger, the Poles, in tho mjds.t of Uio jroiitfist economic misery that a knew, have been trying lo erei_e an arnjy'of 500.000 men for their promotion £i*fyn ■ the Germans on one side and the JJolsheviki on the other. ]f the Triyily .is ratified tho German Army will be reduced to 200,000 men and dispersed over Germany and their £xlni armament destroyed. Tho failure of llio Treaty moans the invnsion of tho Polish Sliite. This is only ono of Iho powder im>w zines in Enropo which nnniint be deulroyed until tliis Treaty is ratified, and during every day of delay more explosives are poured into them.

Very possibly the London Times is within tM mark in stating J had tliern arc now 700,000 German soldiers under arms. In thai; case the threat of a Gmtuin invasion of

Poland as a step towards the domination of Russia is so much the more serious. Meantime condition. o making for renewed strife arc visibly developing elsewhere in Europe and in areas outside Europe. How far the Allies will be able to grapple wi£h such problems unaided by America remains to be seen. With the United States co-operating, economic, measures alone would go fiiv to compel Germany to carry out the terms of the Treaty, and thn influence of a united League of Nations'would be potent in inducing other countries to adjust their differences peacefully. For the moment, the prospect of progress on these lines is remote, and the United States must accept full responsibility fov the fact The Republican majority in the Senate is apparently intent upon a policy of spiritloss inaction regardless of the fact that the result may be to plunge Europe again into a state of 'chaos. The criminal folly of such a policy was summed up by Mr. Hoover in words ■which constitute a. scathing indictment of the attitude of the Republican Senators:

Neither the gospel of hnto nor the gospel of unprepnredncss is the road to peace. The truo roiul lies in every effort to remove the onuses of war, not in tearing down such structure of peaco as we have, nor in blindness to present dangers. Those who think wo <;an isolate ourselves seem' to ignore the fact that modern communication has shortened our distance from our neighbours from a month to an hour. A vast amount of our civilisation ami the <liiily improvements of lifo that come to our people arc the products of the ideas and intelligence and labour of our neighbours. If we believe, wo can see our neighbours refurn to another thirty ypare , war through the "breakdown of this Treaty, < pd we still maintain our progress, it is the egotism of insanity.

It is in this light that the facts must appear to any unprejudiced observer of the action of the American Senate. Tho weight of national opinion may yet compel the Republican Senators to amend their attitude, but up to the present their action in reference to the Treaty has been as well calculated as possible to bring new horrors of war upon the world. At best they have added enormously to the difficulties the Allies must overcome in enforcing the Treaty and ie-estab-lishing peace.