NEW EUROPE TAKES STOCK.

Hokitika Guardian, 30 January 1929, Page 8

NEW EUROPE TAKES STOCK.

“The new States of East and Central Europe from the Baltic to the Adriati have been celebrating tlie tenth anniversary of the attainment of their independence.” savs the ‘‘Central .European Observer” of Prague. ‘‘The downfall of the Hoh.enzollern. Hapshurg. and Romanoff empires freed a nmnier of peoples from an alien yoke that had kept them in subjugation for centuries. and it is only natural that the nniversnry of their liberation should be for them an occasion of special rejoicing. all the more so as it marks at the same time the conclusion of ten years of progress and consolidation in their new condition. Esthonia. Latvia. Lithuania. Poland. Cm-ho-Slovakia, Eoumnnia and Vugo-slavia have each had their owii celebrations. Quite a remarkable feature about this tenth anniversary of the inauguration of a new order throughout East and Central Europe is, however, the fact that even the countries that were despoiled as an invitablc outcome of the war—• Germany and Austria in particular—show in general no longer any sympathy with tlie old regimes that evoked the war and foundered ingloriotisly at its close. Those who lost the war. equally with those who emerged with gain, realise that the old order has changed for good, and thus it lias come about that victors and vanquished alike (though, 01 course, in different degree) have just commemorated the tenth anniversary of the beginning of a new and worthier epoch than that which closed in October and .November. 10‘28. In this consensus of opinion on the old. lies a certain guarantee for the advance and success of' the new order.”