THE EUROPEAN MAZE

Evening Star, Issue 22459, 2 October 1936, Page 7

THE EUROPEAN MAZE

FRANCE AND HER FOES RELIANCE UPON RUSSIA Europe is back just where it was in the mad summer of 1914^—divided into two great hostile camps, with plenty of powder barrels lying around for an ill-guided hand to sot off (writes Ralph Heinzeh from Paris to the San Francisco ‘ Chronicle ’). As a result of the Austro-German Entente the Holy Alliance has been rerived. And just as before 1914 there is one great camp composed of Berlin, Rome, Vienna, and Budapest—a camp of revisionists who do not have what they want. To their right and left is another bloc, built around what is left of the victorious allies. They include non-revisionists, who have what they want and aim only to keep their war gains. This orbit once was under the tri-colour and dominated by France. Now it is redtinted, and Moscow has seized control from Paris. It includes Russia, France, Czechoslovakia, Turkey, Rumania, and for the time being Belgium and Yugoslavia. Great Britain is trying hard to hold her position in the centre of the political seesaw. When political fortunes seem to favour the red orbit Britain leans towards Germany, but when the balance swings towards the “ dictators’ group ” London shows more sympathy for French-Russian policies. France knows that her hopes of remaining a first-class Power depend on her ability to keep the Little Entente intact. France already has lost Poland to the German orbit despite the Danzig coup, and it appears likely that so long as France retains Russia as her chief ally, Poland will stay outside the French bloc. . BELGIUM’S NEUTRALITY. Belgium has torn away from French tutelage, and wants to play the role of a neutral buffer State in Europe—no body’s ally and not built into the military machines of either bloc. Yugoslavia, in an effort to force France into making concrete guarantees for her safety against an Italian attack, is flirting with Berlin. In the face of growing German tendencies in Rumania, the French General Staff acted promptly to push French credits for the construction of strategic railroads and increased armaments in King Carol’s country. Hitler sought to extend Germany’s influence in the Balkans and Danubia by offering commercial and military aeroplanes in exchange for surplus farm and natural products of Rumania, Greece, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia. But France sent able salesmen on the trail of Hitler’s commercial ambassadors. They outbid Germany by extending cash credits, and as a result Hitler’s ambition appears to be checkmated temporarily. Russia has gained what appears to be at least a temporary armistice on her Far Eastern frontier, bloodied by a long series of border incidents, but she fears that the western Fascist coalition, dominated by Germany, is preparing for invasion,, presumably of the rich Ukraine territory. Finland and Poland also are regarded as “ war suspects ” by Moscow.