ERA OF PEACE DOUBTFUL.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3146, 4 December 1922, Page 2

ERA OF PEACE DOUBTFUL.

(By Sir Philip Gibbs). , The question must be asked and if possible answered whether the British Empire can count in any way upon her allies in the great war or upon any friendship in the world during the coming conflicts which will tax her strength to the uttermost. For it is idle to believe that wo are approaching an era of peace and world settlement. All my hopes in that direction 1 confess have withered away after an anxious study of the present situation in most of the countries of Europe and in Asia Minor. J am forced reluctantly lo believe that for some years ahead, jxM'haps for mam*, such institutions the League of Nations and all they represent in the hopes of idealists everywhere will be challenged by the forces of disorder and strife and by armed Powers deaf to all arguments of arbitration and conciliation. The red hot flames that have been lighted in the Near East by Mustapha Kemal ancT his Turks have already touched a long train ot explosives stretching away through Palestino, Persia and India, where Western ideas and desires do not prevail and cannot be maintained except by authority hacked ultimately by armed' force acting as police. It is upon Great Britain, above all, that tho burden of authority falls most heavily because of her immense guardianship of the East. It is not an exaggeration to say tTlat the British people are the main bulwark of the world against the rising tide of color which, is now menacing the white races. But in many other ways Great Britain has a vast and perilous responsibility. Leaving ideals altogether on one side —and to mention them is always to raise the accusation of -hypocrisy—it is certain that for trade interests and economic life alone England stands for ,t peaceful reorganisation and settlement of Europe and 5,s an arbitrator between the deefated peoples of the great war and their victors. That policy is surrounded by inevitable dangers to old alliances and friendships, for an arbitrator who holds the balance between passionate interests and deadly hates is not going to acquire much love for himself on either side.

These difficulties are going to increase. Nothing is settled anywhere. The question of German reparations still remains as an unsolved problem, though for a little while it has been shelved. The question of inter-allied debts between France and England’ will come to the -fore again; hideous old plague spots that seemed to have been healed by the victory of the Allies have broken out afresh.

The coming back of the Turk to Eurojie as far as the River Maritzai on the frontier of Bulgaria writ again arouse racial hatreds and fears and vendettas of the Bulgar and Serb and Turk, with Russia and Germany and France pulling the wires from behind. Already there are Ministers of France who acclaim the restitution of Turkey as a French victory against England. One of them has stated that France must regain her ascendancy on the Rhine as she has just done on the Maritza.

It is clear, then, that British policy in Europe as well as in Asia, will bo put to the most supreme test of wisdom and strength, and there 1 is conviction among the English people that this ordeal will find them utterly alone. Whatever may be the blame given to English statesmen for supporting Greek claims to Smyrna and ignoring the growing power of the Turkish Nationalists until they came down like tigers upon defenceless communities of Christians after the Greek defeat —personally I think they were guilty of incredible folly—it is hard to acquit the French of unfriendly action in withdrawing their troops from the neutral zone around Constantinople at a time when British troops were ordered to defend the freedom of the straits.

France bad pledged her word to the necessity of keeping those straits open., yet she refused to lend a man or gun to join in their defence. Meanwhile British regiments, guns, airplanes and warships were being rushed to the Bosphorus, not for any exclusive British interest, but as guardians of Europe in this gateway to the East. The cost of that military action is already heavy. It will fall upon the British taxpayer, who is already sweating under his load and selling his home treasures to pay his income tax. If this is only the beginning of extensive military operations costing large sums of blood as well as money the citizens of Great Britain may he asked to bear impossible burdens and may decide that it is better to shelve, some of their responsibilities. What will hap[K?n then to Europe and to white civilisation? It is the British peoplo who guaranteed the German banks so that Belgium should get her payments and Germany be saved from a financial breakdown that would have ruined France. Is it England who must always take these risks alone? It is clear to me that she cannot do so. There must come a time when arithmetic will answer that question in the negative. The British people are already restive against this increasing expenditure, and from all classes there is loud protest against any action demanding life or money for its fulfilment. They are determined to avoid war at all cost's on issues which are not utterly vital. There will be upheaval in England if that determination is thwarted for all hut the most terrific reasons. But England’s policy of peace is impossible if she stands alone and still less if she is challenged and thwarted! in that policy by those who were her friends.

The plain man in England has a hone to pick with France, ’for the reason that the pro-Turkish sympathies of France went so far that they became anti-European and the action of the enemy was something like a stab in the hack to Great Britain and to the young British soldiers in the trenches facing the Turk, and not too numerous. Mustapha Kemal would not have dared play so arrogant a part if England, Franco and Italy had presented a united front both before and after the destruction of Smyrna. It was partly England's fault that that did not happen, hut it was lamentable, anyhow, to say the least of it. that the French Government tore up the Treaty, of Sevres, which they had signed, and made a separate treaty with Mustapha Kemal without any consultation or agreement with Groat Britain or any attempt in that direction. There is one enormous lesson to be learned from these humiliating and tragic events. Europe must stand together in the face of any common menace or .suffer further humiliation, and in my judgment ultimate ruin ; for the British Empire, strong though it still is. will he unable to make peace prevail or to maintain authority and order east and west if it is deserted and stands alone. And without peace there will he no health in Europe and no recovery. Asia waits for Europe’s weakness. Japan is watching. Russia is active.

There are caldrons seetliiilg in the underworld, it is urgent that Era nee and Great Britain should settle their differences with each other and with Germany and play the part of good Europeans. The hostility of France to England on many points of policy is so acute that such hope seems distant

and I am bound to say that France has not played the game as well as we might have expected after such great sacrifices together. It is needless to add that every Frenchman thinks the same thing of England. But what of America in all this? Is the United States so utterly aloof from world interests that she will not lift a. little finger to help us or throw the weight of her influence by any word of friendship and advice to the side of those who work for peace? There arc Americans who tell me so, and recent acts like the Fordncy tariff seem to point to an American policy of an exclusion. I utterly refuse to believe that. I am convinced in my soul 1 that if the British Empire has to put up a fight against fate on the side' of world order and for interests which are not selfish but universal, the American people may be counted on. I am certain that if the British people are hard pressed in a struggle for civilisation against anarchy and for the Western World! against the East the United States will answer her. call with the full strength of her power. It may come to that. Indeed, I think it is only the United States that can prevent many of those dangers ahead. But associating herself, not in a military way hut by moral pressure- with the forces of peace in Europe, with the claims of justice and equity and with diplomatic arbitration, America: can even now help enormously,, By standing silent and aloof she will not be a friend of Europe but an enemy, and that I cannot believe is in tlic heart of the American people.