Evening Post. TUESDAY, JULY 25, 1933. THE OBSTACLE TO PEACE

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 21, 25 July 1933, Page 8

Evening Post. TUESDAY, JULY 25, 1933. THE OBSTACLE TO PEACE

Mr. Arthur Henderson, who has held iio office in his, own country since his defeat at the "General Election nearly two years ago, has nevertheless, in accordance with the unanimous wish of Geneva, retained the presidency of the Disarmament Conference to which he had been elected when he was Britain's Foreign Secretary, and he lias continued to deserve that striking expression of confidence. That he rivals Mr. Mac Donald in his almost inexhaustible resources of hope,. patience, and suavity .is proved by the fact that he has retained his position through the eighteen months, that have elapsed since he opened the Disarmament Conference at Geneva, toiled bravely on without a pause, hurt nobody's feelings, and with nothing to show for all his labours, refused to despair. A fortnight ago Mr. Henderson was at Paris opening a series of disarmament conversations which he has since extended to other European capitals. He made a start with Paris as one of the two hardest nuts .to crack, and after finding the other at Berlin he was actually able to form a favourable impression of the atmosphere. The "friendly and conciliatory assurances" that he received were, however, immediately followed, as the "Manchester Guardian's" correspondent pointed out, by the announcement of "incomparably the most important step taken by post-war Germany towards rearmament." Yesterday Mr. Henderson returned to London after completing his consultations, in Paris, Rome, Berlin, Prague, and Munich, and though he cannot be said to have handed in his checks his faith has obviously been very badly shaken. His previously unconquerable hope has been replaced, as we are informed today, by "cheerless/impressions." FrancoGerman divergencies are said to be. still the chief obstacle, and the problem'of Franco-Italian parity still defies solution. In otrfer words, both of the hardest nuts remain uncracked. The parties to the Four-Power Pact which was formed a few weeks ago to help the League of Nations to_ protect'the peace of.Europe have not yet had time to meet. ;But three of them have informed an unofficial representative of the fourth that their mutual differences are so irreconcilable as to prevent any of them taking a single step towards that reduction of armaments which they all accept in principle, and which they all agree to be the only alternative to the undisguised renewal of the competition in armaments and its logical climax in another World War. If the guardians of the peace in Europe, or, to be quite accurate, three-fourths of them, are on^ such terms of mutual jealousy, suspicion, and. hatred as the deadlock of the Disarmament, Conference implies, what hope is there for the smaller nations? It looks as though the small nations might need guarding from their guardians and the guardians from one another. It is, of course, the age-long rivalry of > France and Germany "that constitutes, as our report says, the chief obstacle, arid it is probable that, if that were out of the way, the minor rivalries of France and Italy might be peacefully adjusted.. It is .with the former oiily that, today's, report deals, and the views expressed are not those of Mr; Henderson but those of France. ■■;'.; Paris messages indicate that the French insist that progress towards disarmament is impossible without effective control on which they will not compromise because they arc convinced Germany is rearming today on a larger scale and with greater speed than at any timo since the War. They will therefore refuse to disarm without an effective and dependable system of. control and inspection; moreover,.they will insist that any such system must- be given a trial for a period. In essence the position is much the same as that for which M. Clemenceau fought so pertinaciously at the Peace Conference. France could take nothing on trust, not even the League of Nations, and her security must be guaranteed before she could accept disarmament and other obnoxious provisions of the Treaty. That guarantee was provided by the "Reinsurance Tjreaty" under which

Britain and the United States undertook to protect the new frontiers of France against German attack, but it was reduced to a mere scrap of paper' when the whole of President Wilson's work at Versailles was destroyed by the Senate. The "Re--insurance Treaty" fell when the ratification of the main Treaty was refused, and from the former Britain also Was released, as she had not undertaken and could not possibly undertake to bear the burden alone. France has been endeavouring to fill up the gap ever since, and has monotonously insisted in the discussions at Geneva that security must precede disarmament, while Britain has favoured disarmament'as one of the essential approaches to security. After the statesmanship of Stresemann.had brought Germany to a reasonable temper, persuaded Britain and Italy to execute a guarantee of the Franco-German frontier for both parties in. the Locarno Treaty, and procured Germany's admission to the League of Nations; the opinion of all British parties had undergone a great change in favour of Germany. She was regarded as ready to forget the ancient feud while diehard France lost no chance of keeping its memory alive and talked of security.just as incessantly after Locarno' as she had talked before. But within the last twelve months the last trace of the spirit of Streseinann seems to have been extinguished in Germany, and within the last six she has developed into a danger to the peace of Europe which has completely changed the attitude of, Britain and of Europe generally to her rival. Most of those who a'few years ago were anxious for France to disarm would doubtless not care to repeat their advice today except upon some such conditions.as those which are stated in the Paris messages above quoted. Even' the British Labour Party has been compelled to regard France <with- a friendly eye. A striking» testimony to the revolution in British opinion, is borne by Mr. Oscar G. Villard, contributing editor of the American Socialist weekly, "The Nation,''' in an article written to that paper from Cambridge, England, on May 20: Josiah Wedgwood, M.P, (Labour) was right; Herr Hitler overnight turned England from n pro-Gerrrian country into a; pro-French one. Sentiment is obviously unanimous ngainst Hitler whenever I have gone- in all walks of life. . . . .Hitler has done himself so much damage already that it is.going to take far more than one speech to win for him the friendship of British people. ■ . - The Reichstag speech sounded a welcome note of peace, but a score of such speeches would not counteract the impression which Jias been, made by almost every item which has since reached us from Germany.. Shejis today a pariah among the nations and without a friend in Europe.