POST-WAR EUROPE

Evening Star, Issue 19697, 26 October 1927, Page 5

POST-WAR EUROPE

RELATIONS AMONG NATIONS SPEECH BY LOUD BIRKENHEAD. Press Association—By Telegraph—CopyrightLONDON, October 21. At a banquet last night, winch brought to a close the Congress of the Federation International dcs Union lutcllcctuale at Heidelberg, the value of such interchanges ol views on cultural subjects ill promoting better relations among the nations was emphasised by tho speakers, who included representatives of tho twelve nations attending the congress. Lord Birkenhead represented Britain, and in the course ot Ids speech, lie referred to the post-war state of Europe. It would, ho said, be idle to pretend that every nation was content with the existing political and international situation. No great clash of arms in history ever ended by solutions recommending themselves to everyone. Thus wisdom showed each nation Unit all deviations and modifications, it and when time showed them to be indispensable, must bo won by patience, friendly discussions, ami a gradual realisation among reasonable men that tho interests of Europe as a whole and the claims of individual nations had established in a particular manner a case for consideration. The growth of tiro increasing spirit of mutual friendship and confidence was the only- in which such development could find nourishment FRATERNITY OF NATIONS. RUSSIA'S RESTORATION ADVOCATED, LONDON, October 21. Speaking at a League of Nations’ Union meeting in the Queen’s Hall, Mr Llovd George said: “ When Austria, Germany, and Bulgaria wore disarmed, the Allies undertook to follow the isamplo Nevertheless, to-day tho Allies’ forces number 10,000,000, and arc infinitely more formidably equipped than in 1914 ” Groat armament, lie declared, would always thwart the League: consequently tho present European armaments were a gross breach ol la ill) with those nations which entered the war to uphold tho sanctity ol treaties. “The present European snarls arc serioustv alarming the smaller States. Tho Balkans are always fizzling, sometimes spluttering, and occasionally exploding, Russia is sulking in the hackground, resenting her exclusion from the society ot nations, where she was once received with deference. She is increasing her strength yearly. She is angry because she lias been robbed ot her provinces, and she is ready to hit back. With the chances of this bristling everywhere, I attach Ihe greatest importance to restoring Russia to the fraternity of nations, because she will he the 'most redoubtable nation on earth when she emerges from her internal entanglements. Another war is inevitable, and it will be more terrible than any in the past unless the nations determine to seek justice and protection from established right and not from force. Only the League can straighten out the situation, but > a League which excludes questions which are inconvenient to powerful nations is a sham and a snare, and sooner or later will be fatal to European peace. —A. and N.Z. and ‘Sun’ Cable.