DANCER ZONES IN EUROPE.

Evening Star, Issue 20685, 7 January 1931, Page 6

DANCER ZONES IN EUROPE.

It is a cause for congratulation that wo are starting tho now year with every pros,:. of a continuation of peace among tho nations. The Assembly of tho League of Nations has held its eleventh session, and lias given signs of .lie growing strength and authority of ilie League. Europe, however, has still its dan< r zones; tho Continent is fill! of armed men, and there are plenty of ugly knots remaining to bo untied. And if these aro to be found mainly among the smaller nations the lesson of the Great War teaches us that they are none the less to bo watched, so quickly does tho flame of war spread. Dr G. P. Gooch, tho well-known historian 'and authority on tho origins of the Great War, contributes to lliu November ‘ Highway 7 ’ a concise .summary of tho present position. Beginning his survey in Eastern Europ., -o uiaws attention to tho bitter feud between Poland and Lithuania in regard to Vilna, long tho capital of tho hitter, but itsell a Polish rather than a Lithuanian city. The '■•d dates back to ...,al Zeligowski’s .aid of 0, now generally regarded as a monstrosity. Lithuania’s population is only two million, os against her ad.ersary’s twenty-seven,'so there is no Tear of a Lithium outbreak. But :r people steadily refuse to recognise Poland’s authority, and every unrecognised frontier remains an clement of unrest and potential danger. A second danger zone is in Bessarabia, tho narrow strip which connects Russia and Rumania. Like tho Rhino provinces it has changed hands again and again Tho occupation of the province by Human ia at the end of the war has never been officially recognised by Russia, and though Moscow lias promised not to attempt to reconquer it, yob if a Balkan

explosion were to take place Russia might easily he drawn in. A third area of poter. i disturbance is Macedonia, the suft'orir- prorinco in the heart of the Balkans over w! Serbia and Bulgaria fought and fought again after they had combined to expel the Turks. The settlement after the Great War gave the province to Jugo-Slavin (the new Jerbia). But Bulgaria believes, not without reason, that if Macedonia were allowed a free choice she would rather be ruled from Sofia than from Belgrade; and the Jugo-Slaviau Government has done little to reconcile its Macedonian subjects to an alien yoke Bulgaria has a population of only five million, \irtually disarmed, to Jugoslavia’s armed eleven million, so again resort to arms is unlikely. But if Jugoslavia and Italy were to come to blows once again • the neighbouring country would tend to bo drawn in. Then there is Albania, the small, barren, mountainous strip on the East Adriatic, which has been treated as a pawn in their game ' 'Hi by Italy and Jugoslavia since the end of the World War left it without a master. It is now an independer. monarchy, whoso ruler, Zogu, a Jugo-Slav protegee, has, however, deserted to the Italian camp. Italy is supplying capital and brains to develop this backward country, so that it is virtually an Italian outpost in the Balkans. There is no love lost between the Jugo-Slavians and the Italians. Probably the most serious cause of uneasiness is the open rivalry which stands unmasked between Italy and France. This dates back really to the Great War, from which Italy considered her share of the spoils far below her deserts. She resents the intimacy between France and Jugo-Slavia; there is constant friction /vith regard to tho large Italian colony in Tunis; and Franco makes no secret of her dislike of Fascist rule. Then "there was the disagreement as to naval power durinff tho 1930 Five-Power Conference in London. And wo have to-day two Latin nations who fought on the same side in tho Great War bickering about naval strength, just as England and Germany used to do before 191-1.- Dr Gooch points out that it is once more a case of a grand alliance falling to pieces directly its immediate object is attained. France, however, is immeasurably’ superior in military power to Italy, so there is no immediate danger of an outbreak Two lesser sources of possible unrest are to be found in Upper Silesia and in Hungary. Germany realised that Alsace had to go at the peace settlement, but very unwillingly did she surrender part of Upper Silesia to a resurrected Poland and agree to the creation of tho Vistula corridor. Germany is pledged by tho Treaty of Locarno not to attempt to alter her eastern frontiers by force, but she has not voluntarily recognised her Josses in that quarter as she did in regard to the Rhine pro vinces. There is always tension in the heart of a nation which regards existing frontiers as provisional. Hungary to-day gazes with sorrowful anger on a map of a country ouc-third its former size. Tho Magyars are one of tho hardest, proudest, and most self-confident races in the world. Their cago irks them, though they can do nothing. Tho only real guarantee of the permanence of a frontier is its- explicit •or tacit recognition by all parties concerned, and Hungary has not yet reached this. Dr Gooch concludes: “Tho moral of, this brief survey of tho danger spots of Europe is that wo must focus on tho creation of a new international order before tho lighting of a match, cither by accident pr design, once rnoj-o brings our civilisation within sight of catastrophe.’’