EUROPEAN MUMS

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXX, Issue LXXX, 29 January 1920, Page 5

EUROPEAN MUMS

LORD BRYCE'S OPINION. MANY MATTERS UNSOLVED. ->£•! Ca^K—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COP miGHT LONDON, Jan. 27. Viscount Bryce contributes an article to the Anglo-American supplement of the Manchester Guardian, discussing the question whether America realises the condition of present-day Europe. Lord Bryce makes allowances -for the embarrassments which/beset the Peace Conference owing to discordance -of views, the atmosphere of revengeful .passion, the incessant press interferences, and the complexity of the problems, but he contends that whatever -allowances must be made the conference failed to solve the problems presented to it. He considers there are no elements of stability in the settlement. Indeed, new causes of strife have been superadded to the existing ones. The indemnities and reparations are excessive, especially as regards Austria. Lord Bryce eloquently describes the appalling material condition of Europe, maintaining that its mental condition -as no less alarming. Britain is only be- . ginning to realise how her own welfare is involved, while the American :people have not yet awakened to the facts of the position. Lord Bryce adds: "The truth is that the world has not become, for good or ill, one community in which if any member suffers all suffer." He em-, phasises.that the apparent aloofness of America is due to want of knowledge, not want of sympathy. The picture of Europe as seen in Britain is veiled from America by the mists of the Atlantic. He points -out that it took America many months to realise the cause of the war, and he Is not surprised that the post-war condition of Europe is not immediately realised, although American idealism -•and sympathy cannot be doubted.