EUROPE A POWDER MAGAZINE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3128, 31 July 1922, Page 2

EUROPE A POWDER MAGAZINE.

(By Sir Philip Gibbs.)

The mo,'>t notable event of the week in regard to European settlements was a clear indication from France that it wais ready to .drop the threat of immediate invasion of Germany should that country default on indemnities. Jt has taken a long time to persuade the French Government that seizure of the German industrial cities) would create a new chaos and more imminent dangers in Europe. What has finally persuaded them is. not only Lloyd George’s straight talks at Genoa, but rhe direct message, to the Oonserva- ■ tive Party, through Bonar Law as its mouthpiece, that France’s warmest friend. England, would not support her •j- if she put new military pressure on Gor‘iniany to extract indemnities beyond the (German means to pay. Besides a warn|feing it was l like an electric shock to Poincare's administration. II it made them realise sharply that if if; they gave orders for a march into the jfjßulir after May .’ll it would isolate ffl France from Britain. That thought of ■ isolation, though often envisaged calmly Bin the French press, became intoterHible when shown as the inevitable re-H-ult of the present policy. Wise coun-Ss-els jirevaiied that the enormous im- ■ aorta nee of British friendship to France 9 s not to ho risked at a time when the ■ derman-B,iissian. alliance raises a new ■ bogy in the French imagination. It ■ is possible that a loan will be made ■Germany on her industrial securities Hnnder secret guarantees! if she cheeks ■ the use of the printing press for paper ■ money, .stabilizes the mark, balances Blicr budget by more drastic taxation. e| This will lie a compromise, postponHing struggles that cannot he averted ■ more than a few years. 1 do not mean ■ necessarily a military struggle, though ■ Europe is still a powder magazine, hut ■ a tremendous struggle that one day Hniiist lie decided between ideals of EuHrcpcan unity based on a real permanent ■ Peace pact and the old international i|ba,'ance of power in which groups of naffltion.s face other groups with such equal of arms' that they hesitate to ' (Violate each other’s rights. iM. Lloyd George with usual dramatic inffifstinct towelled for a nunneut with the gl' search light of Ins vision Europe’s dark!'i cst problem. “Will a hungry Russia.” I he asked, “sit uuieily while its child- ■ ren arc. dying? That is not the experience of the past.” He meant the experience of past history outside of Bussia. as. for instance, when Napoleon broke the blockade of France and led Ins hungry legions to loot many cities, ravage many countries, overthrow many thrones. Lloyd George has not been to Bussia. He speaks onlv through the gift ol' Imagination and knowledge of human nature. I have been to Bussia and seen its ruin and agony; f support liis view by saying I cannot imagine those hundred and fifty million people sitting quietly to die as so nianv are now doing in spite of worldwide efforts of charity on behalf of the children. God knows if there will he another drought tin's year. If that were to happen, as it is prophesied, there will he famine from one end of Bussia to another, and those people would get on the move as sure as hungry locusts gather over harvest fields in'search of food. Any kind of world is preferable to such lingering death, and Trotsky could rally up his ill-fed legions; for any desperate adventure. There are some who hope and think l elutelierm’s failure to obtain loans or credits from the Pacifist elements at the Genoa Conference will overthrow the Bolshevist Government I am not one who think so. I did not meet a single man or woman in Bussia, including those of the old re<dme who believed (lie Bolshevik were "nenaced by internal revolution. The time rs gone past for that. Even Hie young aristocrats are serving as Bed officers or Soviet officials, first for a means of life, lint, secondly, because they are willing to support any Government which holds Bussia together and prev< nts further anarchy. The future’s hardening spirit among the Russian leaders will defeat the moderate pacifist element. That will

•assuredly happen if The Hague Cqn'Fference does not lead to more definite results, for Russia, than Genoai. In that case I am convinced that Lenin and Trotsky, the inner council of Soviet wire pullers, will conspire for a world war as one means of escape for the Russian people. It will be a conspiracy with German militarists—by which I do not mean the German people—who would accept aid from the devil himself for the joy of vengeance. I have enormous pity for the Russian people. They are as good a people as any one; they are brave, patient, kindly,* simple folk. They are just victims of a tragic fate beyond their power to alter or control. They are peasants who love their land, '"their women folk and children, and desire enough to cat. Hut, like all people of human kind, they may be turned into savage beasts by fear, hunger and desperate misery. It is because 1 know that these people, governed by a little minority of fanatical men, are threatened by increasing famine that 1 see the urgent need of international aid, not only for (heir sake, but for Europe’s sake. Their leaders have made for a few months a pact of peace. What is going to happen after that? It would boreal immorality to buy off the Rolsbeviks, as King Alfred thought to buy off the Danes. On the other hand, an attempt to destroy them by force would lead only to new fruitless" agonies to the Russian people. Now that France is ready to work in closer union with Great Britain, there might still possibly come an arrangement with Germany regarding Russia. Germany, outside the small military clique, would, as 1 know, welcome such a proposal. She is the most anti-Bol-shevist nation outside of England and the United States. She only loans toward Russia to avoid French aggression. Her treaty of Rapallo was just a warning to France il she decided to invade the German industrial cities —a grim alternative. But now France, held up by the threat from Germany (at least the present German Government), is willing to come into some co-operative scheme for Russian reconstruction. Here is the way that might he taken, as it should have been taken before. The Soviet delegates could he faced at The Hague, as elsewhere, with a. united front, including Germany, and in return for credits would have to accept conditions which they now evade. France, which opposed a discussion of Red army mobilisation offered by Tchitchcrin because it opened general discussion, which might weaken the French strength in armed force, could ho persuaded to support that condition now she has drawn closer to Groat Britain to avoid isolation. With hacking from the United States this scheme could still go through as a good business policy. It would save the Russian people, for the ; Bolshevist Government would come 1 into lino with the ordinary code of international honor, ft would also break the sinister meaning of that German Treaty of Rapallo, by which at present Germany is loft alone in the field with the Russian Government. These things are worth thinking about by all men and women. They are the only things that matter, not so much to our present generation hut to children yet unborn who would he the victims of the next Armageddon unless we try to save them now.