Evening Post. FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 1928. THE THREE LOCARNO STATESMEN

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 46, 31 August 1928, Page 8

Evening Post. FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 1928. THE THREE LOCARNO STATESMEN

We were reminded yesterday that "the three leading Locarno statesmen"—the three men to whom more than to any others the world owes the immense advance that has heen made during the last three years towards a really stable peace—have all been simultaneously and seriously ill. The illness of Sir Austen Chamberlain, which was at first minimised in tlie usual way as a chill that might confine him for a few days to his room, was obviously serious when it was allowed to prevent his attending at the Quai d'Orsay on Monday to sign the Peace Pact. But his trouble is given a still graver aspect by the particulars supplied apropos of the "prolonged voyage" on which he has just embarked for the Pacific Coast of North America. It is stated that he is woll enough to go, but he is not much more. A prolonged period of overwork has drawn on his reserves of strength. He is not expected back in London before 7th November. M. Briand's ailment has been of longer duration. It has compelled him within the last few months to cancel more than one of his engagements at Geneva. It was causing serious anxiety on the eve of the French General Election in April, and what the "Daily Telegraph's" diplomatic correspondent Called "the wholly uncompromising character of the French alternative draft of Mr. Kellogg's Treaty" was commonly attributed to the opportunity which M. Poincare derived from his colleague's illness of attending to the matter personally. M. Briand was fortunately well enough to take the chair at the Peace Pact Conference, and his eloquence as cabled betrayed no falling off in heartiness or felicity, but we were reminded yesterday that he has been long convalescing, and it was also stated that at the conference he was seen to be much thinner. The plight of the German Foreign Minister seems to be more serious still. Disquieting reports of his health were received before the German elections in May, but he stuck to his job, and despite the small encouragement that his party received from the electors his personal standing enabled him to exercise a disproportionately powerful influence in the negotiations which resulted in the formation of a Coalition Cabinet under the Socialist leader, Herr Mueller. It was as the result of "a striking suggestion by Dr. Stresemann" that, after the failure of several attempts had threatened a deadlock, Herr Mueller found a way out by forming "a Cabinet of personalities." An incident of this ingenious device, and the only one that was of international concern, was that,' though the People's Party elected to stay out, its leader, Dr. Stresemann, was" able to come in and take his old place at the Foreign Office. Satisfactory as the arrangement was for the peace of Europe, 1 there was more to be said for it on a dempcratiq basis than the smallness of the People's Party's vote would suggest. Dr. Stresemann's foreign policy of conciliation, and with it the fate of the Republic, had been dominant issues at the elections. The Nationalists, who had bitterly opposed the Locarno policy at the outset, afterwards gave a grudging consent to it when they joined the Marx Coalition Cabinet. But this consent was witlidraAvn on the eve of the election campaign, and they fought it on the old lines of the Monarchy and the war of revenge. Even more remarkable'thai} the victory of the Socialists was the rout of the Nationalists and their policy of reaction and hatred. The inoslt important feature, saic^ our cabled report, is the fading of the Hohenzollerns. Germany is definitely turning from Monarchism to Republicanism, Germany's first General Election since the signing of the Treaty of Locarno thus supplied the first evidence that her |gtce was definitely turned towards conciliation and peac.e. Dr. Stresemann had previously induced,two or three German Governments to accept this policy, but their ppsitipn hsjd never been secure, and the people had not had a chaijce to speak. It is fortunate that tjie man whose health js now so seriously threatened was able to take the grealt policy which }\e had originated dirough this crucial test. It is clear that none of his countrymen would have been equal to the task at either end—that none of them could either have initiated it or seen j it through. When Dr. Stresemann first began to attract attention outside of his own country, he used to j be spoken of as "the German Lloyd George," and both in daring initiative and in the power of commending their ideas to the public the two men seem to have much in common. But in the diplomacy which inspires confidence and is found to deserve it, Dr. Stresemann appears to have a considerable advantage, and except

in wartime Mr. Lloyd George can hardly have been ever called upon for such a display of courage as that which was demanded of Dr. Stresemann when he decided that the way to peace was by Germany's accepting the Treaty frontier and renouncing her claim to Alsace-Lorraine, and that it was his duty to say so. At the ceremony on Monday Dr. Stresemann was a pathetic figure. Accompanied by a doctor, and probably against his advice, he had come to take part in a great historic occasion, and to be "the first German Foreign Minister to be officially in Paris since the Franco-Prussian War." Presumably the last precedent was the visit of Bismarck when he came with the conquering armies of Prussia to add to the' humiliation of France by the ceremony which made the King of Prussia German Emperor, and to see the Prussian flag flying over the forts of Paris. The, French and German flags were flying in friendship, along with those of j the other nations, when Dr. Stresemann entered, and the welcome seems to havo been worthy of the occasion. In the Clock Room of the French Foreign Office he was spared the strain of a speech, but we are told that, along with M. Briand, he was much distressed by the "fierce floodlights pouring upon the delegates" for cinema purposes. We may be thankful that Sir Austen Chamberlain escaped this ordeal, and trust that the two other invalids may soon be benefiting by the medicine which he is enjoying—the medicine of perfect rest.