THE PACT IN DANGER.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 261, 4 November 1925, Page 6

THE PACT IN DANGER.

Europe will indeed be hag-ridden by ill-luck if Germany refuses to ratify the Locarno Pact. The situation that has arisen in Germany is obscure. That the Nationalists should refuse their support is disappointing, but not very surprising. To them adhesion to the Locarno Pact is a humiliation. The agreement confirms the frontiers drawn by the Treaty of Versailles, especially in the West, and by signing it Germany renounces the idea of a war of vengeance against France. The Socialists, however, appear to be in favour of the Pact, but they seem to be subordinating their duty towards it to a desire to score off the Nationalists by forcing a general election. These parties are the two main forces in the Reichstag. At the elections eleven months ago the Socialists won 129 seats to the Nationalists' 104. Both parties increased their strength, but the gains of the Socialists were much the greater. Apparently the Socialists think that in an election to-morrow they could make more gains, and be nearer the day when they will have an absolute majority. This, policy, however, exposes the precious Pact to some danger. The Government may appeal to the country on the one issue of the Pact, but it is impossible to confine the attention of voters to one subject. Manoeuvres like this may not be surprising in a country in which responsible government is new, but it will be a calamity if the patient work done at Locarno is brought to nothing by the confusion and selfishness of party politics in Germany.