EUROPEAN PEACE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 114, 17 May 1927, Page 7

EUROPEAN PEACE.

• V GERMAN INFLUENCES.

Inevitable Reverses and

Delays.

LITTLE MISUNDERSTANDINGS. (British Official Wire'ess.) RUGBY, May 10. Although real progress has been made in recent years toward the establishment of peace, there are frequent reminders that the efforts to this end cannot be relaxed, states the "Times" in a review of the situation in Europe. Speeches recently made by German Nationalists, the demonstration in Berlin by the "Steel Helmets," and the renewed struggle on the part of the German Foreign Minister, Herr Stresemann, to compensate for internal developments with a reasonable foreign policy are cited in support of this contention. "Even though the war spirit is dying down," the article states, "the re-absorp-tion of Germany into the general life of Europe is being completed very slowly. "There are inevitable reverses and delays, the causes of which certainly do not lie entirely outside Germany. As the Vice-Chancellor, Herr Hergt, and the chairman of the Reichstag group of Nationalists, Count Westarp, have continually declared, the lines of reconciliation, in view of regular co-operation between Germany and the Western Powers, have been laid down. "Herr Stresemann has gained much for his country by following this in spite of the stubborn opposition of his own Nationalists." The paper says it thinks the movement along the lines of the Locarno policy is gradually telling in favour of Germany and that an attitude of patience and tolerance has been established in Western countries. The Nationalists have failed to realise that a corresponding attitude is required of Germany if progress is to be ensured. Of the reactionary tone of the Nationalists' sudden outburst of defiant speechmaking, the "Times" says: "This is exactly calculated to recall to the minds of Western nations the spectres which were being laid. It may only be a passing phase in German politics, but at any rate it has created unfavourable conditions for the soundings in Paris being made by the German Charge d'Affaires, with a view to a reduction in the forces of occupation in the Rhineland.

"In France the disposition is to move very cautiously in this direction, but whatever readiness there may be to reduce the garrisons, it has been chilled by the sudden outcry in Germany against the accepted method of procedure.

"The only effect of the Nationalist demonstrations will be to further delay the general work of appeasement and to cause a setback in that process of gradual reconciliation between France and Germany, of which many signs are visible."