KEEPING THE PEACE OF EUROPE.

Hokitika Guardian, 12 May 1923, Page 4

KEEPING THE PEACE OF EUROPE.

POLITICIANS WHO LEARN NOTHING. (“Daily Mail” Paris correspondent.) (D Foreign polities have, always seemed .somewhat of a mystery to the great mass of the population of Great Britain, and before the war there were millions of reasoning people in that country who could not see how an assassination at Sarajevo, or an advance of Austrian troops on Belgrade, could possibly interfere with the normal habits of their lives.

Practically alone among the Biitish newspapers at that time “Ihe Dailx Mail”, in the telegrams from its many special correspondents in the capitals of Europe, and in its leading articles, pointed out the German menace and tried to teach the lesson of wlrat would happen when the inevitable European war broke out. Then, as now, theie was the same opposition, the same hostility, and. what is perhaps worse still, the same indifference from the same would-be leaders of opinion. War. it was said, was impossible, and only a few days before the Germans had invaded Belgium and a lew weeks before our Army was fighting at Mens there were political writers in England who were talking of “our friends the Germans,” and speculating on what commercial profit Great Britain could wn: from a European conflict! And now once more the same grave problems are being treated in the same shallow and inconsistent way. It appears that to these people the four years of bloodshed, havoc and suffering of the great war taught no useful It'S-

The fact that it was the Entente C'ordialo which alone enabled lutiope to treat her Ihe storm, that it w-'s the advice and labours ol those who pointed out. day in and day out, that Gio.it Britain and France, standing side by side, formed the only possible guarantees for a free and peaceful ‘Europe, appears in danger of being forgotten. Then there is Germany. Partly composed of pseudc-Boeialists. whose doctrine allowed them to take a fanatic part in the war of aggression against France and Belgium, partly <>f violent Nationalists, whose one dream is ol revolt, from Allied constraint, and partly i f a minority of Connninii-t workmen. filled with vague ideas of the (Vmimt'nisl Federated States ol Europe what stability and what efforts on 'behalf'of peace can he expected from her ]

lfer most stable elements are undoubtedly those who are dreaming of fresh wins and who with the remem--I,nine;' of lest territories, lost g'ory, and lest hopes, will seize in their seateli for revenge upon every lniilt and every failure of the Allies’ statesmen.

Italy, if her Fascist i isorgimonto succeeds, as all her friends hope at last it will, gives us something stable on which to build.

'fills i- compromised, however, by the feud which separates her Irom hei nearest Balkan neighbours and thus renders her peculiarly siiscepi ihle when danger rises in the "’a: centre < I Europe, the Balkans. Roiiniauiii, pour and as yet struggling to recover from ii" effects of war and inva-ioii, with the “Red Terror" on km eastern frontier, vita the new acquisitions of Bessarabia and Trnnsvlv.iuhi ib somewhat difficult ol oigospi, ii. manages, by her alliances and kei friendships, to present jjit outward appearance of stability, bin ii is one which would resist a shock with difficulty. Hungary, small, hut fairly prosperous. with its peasant population might |,o stable if its lords and eounls leased from plotting and .set themselves to work in the real interests of their country instead of in these of families and dynasties. Poland lias a possible future before her. Shis has leaders and workers, hut Hi p[e experience, and great and menacin'* dangers, not only Irom the oa-t but aDo from the west. Roland may well le the cause of the next European war; she certainly will not be 11,0 Power that will prevent it. And so (his brings us to Frame and Great Britain. There we come to the ni o Goruiale, the only him ground in Europe. (n my next article. I will 11 > KUi.ly the . inline-nee Iho txvo Powers mav have < n the future of Kr.ropu if tin y stand together or if they Hand divided.

PASSIONS BENEATH THE SERFAGE. nr.) If we British were to take a map oi Europe and study it. more often than we do we should he saved many errors. an,l we would certainly gel a iar clearer idea of the political situation of Europe, its dangers, and its possibilities.

At the present moment, when hesitation and further blunders may prove filial to the British Empire, it is the flulv of every Briion to try and uncle.stand what pas-ions are seething beneath the surface of Europe, v.heie tho re is solid ground on which to tread, and where there are volcanoes which limy hronk out at any minute. I lm vo soon diploma lists and statesmen who. looking over tho map 01 Europe, have told me that not e\ eu just before the Great War was the old world in such a state of disruption and el in os, and that probably never for more than half a e.enLury has the situation been so big with danger to world pence. Lot us take the important European nations one hy one.

Where do we find solid institutions, a real national instinct, and that love for progress in good order and honesty which alone can bring prosperity and happiness to a race and peace- to itseh and its neighbours?

Russia -is perhaps the best example of everything that is iiie contrary to thi- definition of a stable country. In the melting-pot of revolution Russia has so far lost everything that counts for a nation, and as yet nobody can toll what will eventually come from that huge and amorphous collection ol races and creeds ruled over by a violent minority partly composed of selfseekers and partly of fanatics. Russia certainly cannot be taken as a factor which stands in Europe lor pence o» prosperity.

Within the next few days the British Government will be faced with the necessity of taking a decision of the most vital importance on which depends the continued close friendship of France and Great Britain, the prosperity of the British Empire, and rite future peace of Europe. For this reason I wish to take this opportunity to put before the readers of Ti e Daily Mail, in this brief series of articles, the value and the necessity of the Entente Cordinle for the peace of the world ns it appears to a T tench statesman, to neutral diplomats, and to all those impartial and well-in-formed observers of world politics fn Paris who liayc discussed the question of Franco-British relations with me during the first three months of this vo a;-.

There have appeared in many British newspapers—organs whose importance and influence, unfortunately, are often greatly exaggerated in Continental minds—many vague proposals for sub-

stituting all kinds of guarantees and international unions to take the place of the Entente C'ordiale in securing the peace of Europe. It is a strange but significant fact that many of these proposals hear the stamp of coming direct from Germany, and nearly all of them are sponsored by notorious philanderers with the idea of a good and honest Germany now really repentant for the harm she has done.

Now the best preface to any discussion of the value o( the Entente is to say right away that, in Paris, the sober thinkers and the well-informed statesmen and diplomatists have no use whatever for any of these neoluimanitarian plans which are based oil international pledges and the honesty and good-will of Germany.