DISSERVICE TO PEACE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 4, 5 July 1939, Page 10

DISSERVICE TO PEACE

Bearing on the question of war or no war are certain measurable, certain partly measurable, and some almost unmeasurablc factors. In recent time's some of the prime factors have become more definite and therefore more capable of being measured. For instance, there is an Anglo-Polish alliance where, formerly, there was speculation. And last weekend there was a Danzig concerning which it was definitely known that if an outbreak of disorder, internal or external, caused the intervention of the Polish army, and if the Polish army was then attacked by the German army, Britain and France would at once come to Poland's support. There have been many precarious weekends, but at none of them has the war position been so coldly and clearly defined as it was at last weekend witli regard to Germany, Danzig, Poland, Britain, and France. But while these factors were measuring up clearly—and making, as it was later proved, for a quiet weekend—the. Russian alliance factor made no advance from the twilight in which it has lately rested, and the United States factor unfortunately took a step backward into the shade of obscurity, owing to the refusal of the House of Representatives to remove the arms and ammunition embargo. This blow to peace is interpreted by leading New York Press opinion as being due primarily to domestic political feuds in the United States —that is to say, the peace front oversea is being weakened by locally motived action. But the New York "Herald-Tribune" can look above the party battle to the bigger battle, and can be ashamed of its own Republican obstructionists in the House of Representatives: As a Republican newspaper, we regret that in the House so many Republicans seemed to vote primarily with a view to embarrassing the President. The crisis is far too serious for such petty spitefulness. And the President himself, looking above the party battle, studies the diplomatic dispatches and seeks to read the mind of the European aggressionists, who themselves weigh in the finest scales the still doubtful factor of an Anglo-French-Russian alliance, which refuses to crystallise, and the now clouded possibility of complete munitional and financial aid by America to the democracies. President Roosevelt did his best to give this factor of American aid a greater definiteness, so that it could be measured up among the more certain factors in the issue of peace or war; his defeat by the House of Representatives is therefore hailed with satisfaction in Berlin (still calculating whether it is safe to spring) and with dismay elsewhere.

Will the reaction in the American House of Representatives put a fresh premium on a Russian alliance? Or mil that reaction be itself corrected by a counter-reaction of the American people, on the personal appeal'of the President? Democracy hopes it will. Meanwhile democracy regrets that while in recent months some of the safeguards of peace have assumed concrete form, others remain indefinite and hardly to be relied on —a condition which weakens the peace front and encourages wargamblers to follow risky and ruthless courses.