PRANCE DEVELOPS A DANUBE POLICY

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 19, 22 January 1921, Page 2

PRANCE DEVELOPS A DANUBE POLICY

The Danube. is a river of enormous commercial and political importance, declares W, Crawfurd Price in a London paper, and while it is easy to understand the ambition of -France to 'dorainato its traffic and to secure-a leech-like hold on Central Europe,, it is equally obvious that suoh a consummation would bo agreed able neither to the other, great Powers and those iesser Powers whoso, tonnago is there well represented, nor. to the halfdozen or so countries which are in, a more cr loss degr.eo dependent upon it for their communications. As a matter of fact, the tendency toward jntsmationalisation, inaugurated-in the seventeenth centurj, has been, and is continuous, and Great. Britain has now secured a firm hold on the navigation after considerable negotiation.

The idea, of a Danubian Confederation vra-s quashed prinpipaliy" by Tzeoho-Sio-vakia. spea-king through Dr. Bones, her Foreign Minister. - The difficulty here Jies principally with tho Da.nubiari States themselyes, for the political differences between them are as formidable ob those which afflict Western Europe. Some. like Tzecbo-Slovakia, Jugo-Slovia, and Rumania, ha,ve more or, less identical aims and, interest, but these same aims and interest are opposed to the cherished ambitions of some of their neighbours.

The divisions between. Ppjand, TzeshpSloyakia, Austria, HUngary, Rumania, and JugorSlavia are too acute to permit at present of anything in tho nature of sincere mutual co-operation, and in the case of at least two of them the sentiments nurtured toward their neighbours are frankly unfriendly. It so happens that, while the strongest group among the above-named States is that made up of;Tzeoho-S!gyakia. Rumania, and Jugb-Slavia, French diplomacy pivoted its efforts principally upon Poland and Hungary.. The Poles may be all that the Paris press has said of 'them, but- unjt;! their ambitions are confined to more moderate limits, thpy" will provide an effective barrier to general" co-operation. On the other- hand, if France had intended to single put one state' moro calculated than ■another, tp \yreck her schemes from, tho commencement, her choice must buroly have fallen iipon Hungary. Hungary, of course, i« the anti-Bolshft-yist country par excellence, anci the French are so fieeply committed to tho support of the anti-Bolshevist forcen' in Russia, even maintain the consuls of tuo."White' regime in .Various pavts of Europe) that the inclination toward the Magyars' is easily comprehensible. Again, Hungary, like Poland, is Romsn Catholic —fanatically Roman Cat-hollc—and JJuda-pest a' splendid centre for any attempted control of the Damibo. Bui, Hungary is at daggers drawn w if h Tiecho-Slovakia, Rumania,'and Jugo-Slavia, slio ii. stiff' with tho surplus arms and ammunition of tho late Hapsburg army, and, apparently, riot- without intention to turn them "to political jaccoun); Ehciuld occasion arists; she has lost no time in propaganding, plotting, and intriguing aga.inst her ufligHlipurS, who perforce regard -her as a very oresent menace. One result has been that France, in pingling out.Hungary as the axis of hsr Centra) oi- .EustcrtV Wuror«'-K« p«>««,v> ™n !, 01!t pi:cit!ffi» elsewhere, p«tioul»rly in -Tiecho-i-Sloinkui.