COOL JUDGMENT

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 563, 21 June 1933, Page 2

COOL JUDGMENT

VITAL TO. EUROPE ERANfefe C5NSEH§ ^RIJCTURE OF PEACE TO BE IN DANGER. TREATY REVISION ISSUE. It (is a good thing there .are -a few cool-hea:ded statesmen , in Europe ,tqr day. M. Daladier, the new French Prime. Minister, is one of them.s- Present difficiiltios have not ruffiqd, tllough they may have perturbed him. He eomes from Provence, and his speech has the h'igh intonation of the exuber:ant South, which makes he cairn, self- « possession and assurance of this blaek-clad, clean-sh(aven little m}an, with the clear blue eyes, engaging smile, and strong chin all the more striking. The contrast'hetween speech and manner is, in fact, as surprising ias it would be to detect a whiif of garlic in a Laplander's euisine, writes Brigadier-General E. L. Spears in the London Daily Telegraph. Coolness is essentiai, for the situation of Europe to-day, as seeri through French eyes, is.very grave— graver by far th'an most people, in England realise, France wonders .whether recent events in Germany have made England understand that her fears were not without foundation, and that' the 'German nation was not as entirely incapahle of violence as we seemed so fondly to limagine. But- the fact that France is now in a position to say, "I told you so!" does not in any way detract from her apprehensions. The truth' is that she feels the very structure of peace to be in danger. It is this fact, and not the excesses of Hitlerism, which is causing her the gravest fears to-day. Even the severest shocks could be withstood if the' framework of peace were strong and sound, but it seems to many French eyes to be cracking.

Fear of War. France has >a far more vivid fear of war than we have. She fears it as a man with a broken arm fears a knock, and she believes that only with the active collaboration of England can peace be maintained. Her people are bent on peace with a kind of grim determination. They are convince.d that another great war would mean literally the end of eivilisation. A few weeks ago, it was safe to prophesy that under no circumstances whatever could they be induced to take up arms, whatever happened to their Eastern European Allies. To-day it is still hard, but no longer impossible, to conceive of circumstances that would induce them to fight. Unpleasant though it may be to us to have to admit it, England can do more to dispel the danger of war than any other.country. The real friends of peace an England to-day are those who have the courage to say that they are pre.pared to run the risk of burning their feet in stamping on the flames, whenever and wherever they appear. This is a truth repugnant to every Englishman. The one thing we want is to he left alone, and not to be called upon to intervene, diplomatically or otherwise, in the affairs of Europe. But, like France, we also want peace. A Fatai Belief. If the feeling should grow abroad that England will not in any circumstances intervene if a breach of the peace is threatened, if the powerful infiuence she. can exert is gradually withdrawn, or if she should seem to abandon the democratic procedure of the League of Nations, which, with f all its faults, is still humandty's great hope, then indeed the chances of peace are slender. Europe to-day contains a number of nations which owe their existence to the Peace Treaties, and whose population have regained their freedom after centuries of oppression. Their territories have beeri carved out of the empires that once held them cn subjection. As >a result of the Prime Minister's conversations with Signor Mussolini these nations were suddenly told that machinery was to be set up to enable the Great Powers to revise the treaties. It is true they were also told, as an afterthought, that they would be consulted, but this concession seems to them much as if the cannibal chdef consulted the missionary as to the sauce he would prefer to he served up in. From their point of view, the futupe seems to lead to one stark fact, that presently — -it may be soon or it may he late — they will he confronted by an irresistibly powerful bloc composed of Germany, Hungary and Italy, a solid mass of peoples that they and France will 'he unable to face on equal terms. They have nothing to hope for and every thing to fear from sucha Central European bloc. The temptation, even the logie, of striking down the grow.ing power hefore it is too strong, rather than run the risk of being swallowed, either wh'ole or in part, at a date later, may prove irresistible. . The possibility of a "preventive war" as the sequel to fthe war to end war": such is conceived by these nations to be the result of the visit to the Eternal Cdty of two British statesmen. A Fine Gesfure. The gesture of making the journey was an excellent one, and was much applauded, but no one th'ought for a moment that from the blending of the minds of two Prime Ministers, both nurtured in the Socialist creed, so startling a proposal would emanate. It is .difficult.to understand how the alarm caused by the Roman Plan was not foreseen. . How could the smaller nations not he offended when, after ■having heen treated as lequals, they heard it suggested that they should be relegated toi alower category .outside the board room where. the Big Four toolc their deoisions, to he called in and consulted only. .when their. „dnterests were involved l -No use felling them all this was' within the framework of the League. To them it appeared the very negation o'f its principles. . : In Eastern Europe .it. is noted- that Mr. .MacDonald indignantly repudiated the suggestion that banding ha.ck Tanganyika to Germany had been discussed iri Rome. . Poles, Czechs, Rumanians— hand them back to their ow masters, why not? But that we sfrould give hack some Ajricans to .theJR'eich', what a preposterous idea! That is the sort of comment one hears.

A *r - " . . 7 . *. * • ". *** - , ff- I Coming: on tpp of the alarming develojpmentS; iri- Germany, one finds that this .Teeiing; has discouraged tendencies tp^mdke^djiisfements ahd concessions which were appearing here and - there. •To-day concessions cannot he made for fear of their being mistaken for weakness .and . interpreted as sigris of fearVAiTime must..pass, aq,d ,a caliper atmosphere be.all6wed tp dqyelop, he.fore these .burnirig,,. anc| , dangerous questions^cqnjbe^discussed further. *£oday the greatest sacrifices would not help matters. •_ If Germany were given the Corridor and Italy Tunis, would that necessari,ly mean that the natipns would live at peace together?. No one can think so for. a moment. • . . : A new spdrit must grow, but it will only develop and thrive if lEurope sees that no -infringement of peace will be tolepated, np. ..unijater.al rep.udiation of treaties countenanced. This is essential.c ' , ' '