"Rebuilding the Toppling Temple of Peace"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23269, 11 February 1939, Page 3 (Supplement)

"Rebuilding the Toppling Temple of Peace"

IN these days, when every fresh speech by the Dictators threatens a re-drawing of the map of Europe, it has become a practice to revert to a study of thye Treaties of Peace and to consider how far the vill of the conquerors, imposed on the conquered, measured up to the accepted principles of international justice. There has even been a disposition to compare the Treaties of y ersailles and Paris with the Treaty of Vienna, which brought to a close the Napoleonic Wars and to -contrast the statesmanship of Clemenceau, Woodrow Wilson, and Lloyd George, to their detriment, with that of Metternich, Talleyrand and Caatlereagh

of great moment in any consideration of the peace treaties in relation to current international affairs and Mr. Lloyd George discusses their genesis ' with liberal and authoritative quotations from official documents. In the first place, a degree of cynicism is evident in the recounting of diplomatic promises by which not only Italy hut also Greece and the Arabs were induced to enter the war on the side of the Allies; the same comment applies

and Italian statesmen are meeting in Rome, as it had in May, 1919. "1 do not think you realise," says Milner to his Prime Minister, "the seriousness of giving away all, or almost all, the Italians ask of us in Africa. . . . I dislike giving up valuable territory to the Italians when the French give up nothing. . . . The surrender of British Somaliland . . . involves a weakening of our strategic position . . . and will have far-reaching effects upon the future of both Abyssinia and Arabia.

"We cannot afford to disinterest ourselves in Abyssinia. The plain and indeed avowed objects of the Italians in trying to get hold of all the approaches to Abyssinia from the sea is the the ultimate absorption of that country. One lias only got to look at the map to see how serious the setting up of an Italian Empire, half as big as British India, in the north-eastern corner of Africa would be. "It would cut right into the heart of that p;reat sphere of British influence extending from the centre of East Africa, through the Sudan, Egypt, Arabia and the Persian Gulf, to India, which is the real British 'Empire,' g* apart from the Dominions. The present Italian strips along the coast of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean m arc not of first importance, and some extension to thein would not greatly matter. But the establishment of a huge Italian block flanking our main route to India and bringing Italy into close relations both with Arabia 'and with the Sudan would bo a very different matter. It would certainly ' mean trouble for us in the future of both those countries. . . . "The very furthest distance which we can safely go with the Italians (this concession is objectionable but not vital) is to offer them the eastern portion of British Somaliland, about .'30,000 square miles, which adjoins Italian Somaliland." Ultimately, Mr. Lloyd George records, Great Britain decided to hand over Jubaland but not British SomaliJand to Italy. Now, when Mussolini is apparently formulating claims against both Great Britain and France, it will be interesting to see whether Mr. Chamberlain will maintain the Milner viewpoint. There is a possibility, too, suggested by recent pronouncements from Berlin, that the totalitarian States have eyes on Cyprus, which was finally annexed to Great Britain under the Treaty of Sevres. Mr. Lloyd George quotes the following reasons advanced by the War Office in January, 1919, for not parting with the island

For those who made the peace after itnore than fifty fearful months of war ttith Germany, it niust he stated that the problems placed before them were °f tnnch greater complexity and possessed greater latent risks of danger than thos'j which confronted the statesmen or Europe a century before. The peace which they built now shows signs °f tottering upon its foundation and for that very reason a literary blue-print, Presented by the sole surviving archi- > tcct, of the peace, possesses more than ordinary significance. "Second-rate Statesman" The second volume of Mr. Lloyd George's "Truth About the Peace Treaties," has now appeared and in the volatile Welshman, organiser of •AHied victory, argues as provocatively 8s ever his own particular case. It is 4 case which he puts strongly and with touch brilliance of language, but it is a Case weakened by his own implied claims to omniscience and his insistence that the treaties have failed the blame ie s solely at the feet of "the miscellaneous a:-id unimpressive array of second-rate statesmen who have handled them for the past fifteen years." . the light of present-day events, Merest in Mr. Lloyd* George's second -Volume lies chiefly in what he has to about the Italian war claims, the creation of the Czecho-Slovak State and ho acceptance by Great Britain of the "aiestino mandate. All these are points

to his enthusiasm for the "propaganda value" of the Balfour Declaration in its influence on the war attitude of World Jewry. But with regard to the Italians in particular it is clear that dreams of the resurrected imperialism of Home in the Mediterranean have only been inherited by Mussolini from Sonnino and that a less pronounced mental antipathy between President Wilson and the Italian delegates would have removed 20 years ago many of today's elements of friction.

Governments change but a national spirit is not a transient thing, and a letter by Lord Milner, quoted by Mr. Lloyd George at the end of his chapter on Italian claims, has almost as much significance to-day, v when British

Organiser of Victory LLOYD GEORGE'S "TRUTH ABOUT THE PEACE TREATIES"

"The potential strategic importance of Cyprus is great, both from a naval and an air point of view. . . With the increasing range of aircraft, Cyprus will be within easy striking distance of the main lines of communication through Asia Minor and Syria and, by sea, to Alexandria and the Sue/, Canal. The danger of its falling into tho hands of (another) Power cannot be wholly disregarded." According to Mr. Lloyd George, France was chiefly concerned in restricting Italian claims for an Empire in the Eastern Mediterranean. "We are witnessing to-day," lie says, "a similar change of policy on the part of French Governments in the Western Mediterranean That also has taken place under pressure exerted by a combination of the same influences. The same unholy alliance of religions and financial vested interests that defeated liberty in the East is labouring to achieve a similar result in the West."

On occasions during bis discussion of events leading up to the establishment of Czechoslovakia as an independent State, Mr. Lloyd George acts almost as an apologist for Hitler. He states that Cleineneeau's principle aim in the dismemberment of the old Austro-Hun-garian Empire, was to have a ring of buffer States around Germany which lie realised to bo temporarily stricken but certain to rise again in strength. Czechoslovakia's Case

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fluence that its fall has not again swept Europe with the flames of war. Mr. Lloyd George has one last word on the remorseless progress of history and Hitler: —"Had the Czech leaders in time, and without waiting for the menacing pressure of Germany, redeemed their promise to grant local autonomy to tho various races in their Kepublic on tho lines of the Swiss Confederation, the present trouble would have been averted."

consideration they received from the Czech Government. Hence the present trouble."

Mr. Lloyd George, gaining in wisdom after the event, also quotes from the remarkable speech given by Mr. Secretary Bauer at the National Constituent Assembly of German Austria. "Tho Allied and Associate Powers," said this eloquent, leader of the Austrian Socialists, "are creating a Czechoslovak State inhabited not only by 6,500,000 Czechs, but also by 3,500,000 Germans —who will revolt from the very outset against the hateful foreign domination —and by 2,000,000 Slovaks who, in spite of their affinity with the Czech, nation, have their own language . . . and who, as regards their civilisation, havo totally different traditions from the latter. "A Polyglot State" "And besides these Germans and Slovaks, 750,000 Hungarians, 500,000 Ukrainians and at least 100,000 Poles will also be incorporated in the Czech State. Czechs, Germans, Slovaks, Hungarians, Poles, Ukrainians —is this not a now Austria which will thus arise under tho Czech banner a new polyglot Stato in which six nations will be parked together, all filled with hatred ono against tho other, arrested in their whole economic and social development, and in the progress of their civilisation by hate and national strife, nourished by tyranny and poisoning their whole public lii'eP ... "Tho former polyglot State fell into ruins in spite of man's veneration for what is old; how can tho new polyglot State, the artificial work of an imperialist diplomacy, exist without any economic community, geographical unity or common history ? Jn its fall the old polyglot State swept tho whole world into a fearful disaster; how can the new polyglot State, when it is ultimately destroyed by the desire of the nations for liberty, fall without setting tho whole continent once more ablaze?" The new polyglot State has fallen, less than 20 years since its foundation, nnd it is largely duo to British in-

"Of the many misfortunes that befell Austria in the day of her great calamity,'' says Mr. Lloyd George, "one of tho worst was that Czccho-Slovakia was represented at the Peace Conference not by her wise leader. President Masarvk, but by an impulsive, clover but much less sagacious and more short-sighted politician (Dr. Benes), who did not f.orsee that the more he grasped the less could heietain. . . . The result was tho recognition of tho polyglot and incoherent State of Czccho-Slovakia and tho incorporation in that State of hundreds of thousands of protesting Magyars and some millions of angry Germans. Tho angrier they became the less

A lengthy section of tho second volume deals with tho laborious framing of the Turkish Treaty—a task complicated by the infamous Sykes-Picot Agreements, French desires for colonial expansion in Syria, and the utter inabilitv of the Allies to maintain large bodies in.areas where the local inhabitants were unable to protect the nascent States which they desired. The Palestine mandate forms part of the Turkish Treaty, and Mr. Lloyd George recounts tho various events leading up to the Balfour Declaration, subsequent French vacillation on points hitherto conceded by Clemenccau and tho various conflicting religious interests which arose.

The actual boundaries of Palestine were fixed by reference to a book written by a Scottish theologian, Professor Adam Smith. In bringing the book before the notice of the conference, Mr. Lloyd George pointed out that, although it was the work of a theologian, written before tho war, it was "so accurate in matters of geography that it had been used by Lord Allenbv during his campaign." M. Berthelot, tho French representative, said that "ho would be delighted to read tho book on Palestine, as ho was partial both to the Scottish and to theologians." And so it came about that the boundaries according to a Scottish theologian were accepted by tho statesmen of tho world. Mandates Obligation Tho whole position with regard to Palestine, according to Mr. Lloyd George, was best summarised in a statement made by IMr. Winston Churchill to the Imperial Cabinet in June, 1921: "It is not that the Jews in Palestine were unpopular—they were rot; it is not that the numbers who are now coming in—7ooo to 8000 a year—aro really introducing a serious or imminent change in the character of the country —they do not; but the Zionists, in order to work up enthusiasm for their cause, have to go all over tho world preaching the return of hundreds of thousands of oppressed peoples to tho Promised Land. This terrifies the Arabs who, although they would not be in tho least alarmed if it were a moderate immigration of carefully selected colonists of the kind that have already established themselves thero. They would not mind that at all, but tho idea they have in their minds is that they are going to be swamped and overwhelmed. . . . "Tho United States has lately been coming forward from its long sleep and demanding that none of the mandates shall be ratified by the League of Nations until they have been fully consulted. but if they are under the delusion that wo are making a great profit out of these we might invite them to share our burden with us or relieve us of them altogether. ... I object very much to tho accusation that we have got off with a very valuable booty when, as a matter of fact, we are discharging with great pain and labour a thankless obligation." The picture painted IS years ago has not faded to-day. Pain and labour are still present, but the obligation remains and it cannot in justice bo thrown aside.

Mr. Lloyd George fulminates endlessly against the Turks. Apparently he cannot forget the indignity of Chanak and ho refuses, it seems, to recognise the prodigious work of Kamal Ataturk in the shaping of the new Turkey. The first backward stagger, he says, was the humiliating Treaty of Lausanne, and in his hatred of the Turk he rages against the "agitation engineered with perverse tenacity to save this fine old Oriental gentleman from the plebeian hands that sought his destruction." Mr. Lloyd George is convinced that in the manner in which minorities have

been dealt with lies the main cause through which the fabric of peace has been weakened. "I personally protested at the Genoa Conference in 1922," he says, "against tho treatment accorded to minorities in some of the States which had accepted the minority conditions of the Peace Settlement. Tho States whose conduct 1 impugned left their case in the hands of M. liarthou, the principal French delegate, who had received direct instructions by telegram from his chief in Paris, M. Poineare, to discourage all my to redress the grievances of the minority popula-

tions in the States which were then in alliance with France.' "M. Bartliou delivered an angry reply to my speech. The little States were naturally very much pleased with his outburst. I received no support from Italy, and America had declined to enter the conference. Some of these States must now regret their premature jubilation. France cannot be too pleased at the consequences." And so Mr. Lloyd George moves on to his conclusion that the treaties broke down because their revisionary powers were not honestly applied. "Had the stipulations of these treaties been faithfully and honestly interpreted and fulfilled," he says, "the dark military and economic menace now hanging over Europe would have been averted." But there still remains Mr. Lloyd George's peroration, if such.it may be called, a summing-up distinguished by nobility of thought and phrasing. "No treaty can guarantee humanity against universal perfidy," he says. "Every peace settlement is necessarily .built on the foundation of the shifting sands of human interests, human ambitions and human passions. No international policy, however wisely and skilfully designed and however well built it may be can long endure until humanity digs down to the bedrock of an eternal ideal and the edifice itself, built on that immutable basis, is concreted with the binding power of accepted law. Future of the League

"Until that stage is reached in the evolution of civilised no alliance or league will be anything more than a voluntary group of vigilantes who have come together for mutual protection against threats and acts of violence, pillage ana murder. Such an organisation dissolves and disperses when the immediate emergency has passed away. The permanent overlordship of an international body guided by principle and precedents which have the force of law with adequate sanctions behind will come only gradually by successful experience. , "There will be many setbacks. \ve are passing now through a bad period of l't trogression owing to selfish,' illdirected and feeble leadership. But. one day the world will throw up men whose wisdom, courage and inspiration will lead the nations to another and more sustained effort for rebuilding the toppling and fissured temple of peace. "The Truth About the Peace Treaties.'* Volume 11., by David Lloyd George* (Gollancz.),