Evening Post. MONDAY, JULY 16, 1934. AN EASTERN LOCARNO

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 13, 16 July 1934, Page 8

Evening Post. MONDAY, JULY 16, 1934. AN EASTERN LOCARNO

The further particulars and comments that are now available do not detract from the interest of M; Barthou's extraordinary explosion; at the Disarmament Conference on May 30, as reported by cable, or from the wonder that the Conference which has so'long seemed to be at death's door should have survived it. •

M. ■Barthott's speech, says "the " Manchester;; Guardian's" "Geneva, correspondent, was a "sensation," as well, it, might be, for, no such speech has ever'before been heard in Geneva. Opinions about it differ. It was iatuTallyiiot liked in British official quarters, ,'nor did tho'Belgian Delegation appear to be pleased with it. Even in French quarters it is thought that, tho manner waa hardly worthy of * a member of the French Academy, and that^ there were certain vulgarities that might have been avoided with' advantage.

The "Spectator" agreed that Geneva had never heard anything like it, but considered the immediate question at.Geneva to be "how seriously M. Barthou's wrecking speech is to be taken." In not taking it too seriously the British Delegation, which was the special target of the attack, gave the Conference a good lead: From the first it was insisted in British official ' quarters, said "the "Manchester Guardian's" correspondent, that the speech would not in any way,affect Anglo-French relations for the worse.

Like this correspondent, the "Spectator's" contributor, "P.Q.R.," referred to M. Barthou's academic distinction as aggravating his offence.

For the first time, he said, Franco is represented at Geneva by a member of the Prench Academy, whose speech last week was the least academic ever made'in the austere precincts of the League of Nations. . : . The speech was characteristic of the man'in being a brilliant piece of oratorical fencing, for M. Barthou is in. the first rank as a parliamentary debater.

Thusr if. the speech was violent and occasionally vulgar, it was also apt and witty,' and some provocation1 had been provided by Sir John Simon's complete-silence 'regarding the security which is all-in-all to France and also V; by; £i trace of that national weakhess to; which- "P.Q.R." refers as follows in,;-his criticism' bf-S-M, Barthou's speech:— '■-;■"" .

All through the' speech there was! an undercurrent of resentment at what appeats to the French (and "to many-' other ' people on the. Continent)'to be I British;; self-ir-ighteoijsness. /"You must/all, make sacrifices,'.? said the British Prime; Minister in Jhis speech i at Gfeneya.last year in. introducing the British draft convention. And a delegate said afterwards: ""Why did he not sayv'W?" '■■ -■ • ■■■■■' '

In Mr. Macßbnald's case at any'rate the defect can merely have been one of form, for he is essentially an intemationalLjwmnded man, and at his call the; nation Has already made such heavy;^unilateral Sacrifices as "to weaken seriously its powers of. leading and bargaining, not to. mention its own security. ■The transfer of negotiations from Geneva in.May and June to London in July has marked a pleasant change of atmosphere, and the outlook is encouraging. The volatile M. Barthou is obviously not embarrassed by the memory of his scathing invective, and for an opposite reason the stolid British temperament is letting bygones be bygones, as it always does. He has been warmly received in London, he has had "conversations of a particularly cordial character" -with Sir John Simon and other Ministers, and, as the irreconcilable differences on the subject of French security had been put out of the way by Sir John's j clear statement in the House of Commons before the visitor arrived, some more harmonious and profit- , able, results may be expected.

The British Government, said "The Times," although ready to be represented on the committee which is inquiring at Geneva info'-the question o£ security, will not expect tho new regional agreement now being discussed to be one to which it itself could adhere. It considers its existing commitments under tho Locarno Treaty'to be quite a sufficient contribution to such systems. M. Barthou- thus arrives here fully- cognisant of the British view.

(Fully understanding tlie altitude of. [the British Government, M. Barthou I had come to explain his own Government's ideas on a matter to which he has recently given a good deal of attention in Central and Eastern Europe. ■ . ' The result of these conversations is explained by Sir John Simon with his usual clearness in the. very important speech in the House of Commons which was reported on Saturday. - What the French Government contemplates is a pact of mutual assistance between France, Russia, the Baltic States, Czechoslovakia, and Germany which would follow the Locarno model. Britain has been definitely set from ihe outset against joining uny_ Eastern.Locarno, but Sir

John Simon was very emphatic—M. Barthou may even Have thought him unnecessarily emphatic—in adding that

no British Government would loud any countenance, encouragement, or moral support^ to a new arrangement between States in Europe which would be of a selective character in thesenso of building up one combination as against another; . . . Sir John asked whether Russia was prepared to offer tho same guarantee to Germany as she offered to France. If Franco was prepared to oiler guarantees to Germany similar to dhoso she offered to Russia, the obieetion. on the score that what was contemplated was not in a true sense a mutual guarantee could bo dismissed.

Anptlier point on which Sir John Simon was emphatic related to the League of Nations. If Russia was to become a party to this new Locarno, he described it as "absolutely essential" that she should become a member of the League. Here, at any rate, both M. Barthou and everybody else will/ surely welcome Sir John Simon's emphasis. '. For a considerable time. the French Press, and in'a smaller degree the French Government, have been urging the admission of Russia to the League, butj.without objecting to the proposal; Sir John Simon has appeared to regard it with a characteristic coldness which was' better suited to the wprldrevolutiohary and Ishmaelitish phase of Russia's foreign policy than to the new attitude dictated by the fear of the Nazis and Japan during the last fourteen months. 'He now say's that lie has made it "entirely plain" to M. Barthou that the French view is shared bythe British .Goverrnnent, and that; it would, be an "immense gain".if Russia came into the League. The -possibility of a new Locarno which will peacefully adjust all those Alsace-Lorraines onv Germany's eastern frontiers seems almost too good to be true,; and Sir John Simon warns us,against treating it : as more than "a very; hopeful suggestion." But there is certainly hope in it, and faith may yet see it through. -