BARGAINING AT LOCARNO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19149, 15 October 1925, Page 10

BARGAINING AT LOCARNO.

The reaching of agreement on. the original proposal made by Germany for a security pact has not proved as impossible as once it appeared to be ; but the further questions raised by that proposal are not so easy of settlement. Germany-has been apparently quite as ready as the Allies to give undertakings not to make war across her western frontier, but she is still reluctant to bind herself against aggressive action in the east, it is something that she is prepared to submit disputes to the World Court and ultimately to the League, and to give the requisite guarantees entitling her to consideration as a candidate for League membership. It cannot be forgotten, however, that there is a strong party in Germany, the Nationalists, incessantly rebellious at suggestions that her military development and programme of expansion should be hampered, and a wish to placate that party appears to have exercised a dangerous influence at the conference. That wish is producing German demands that may yet dash the hopes of Poland and Czechoslovakia that Locarno will contribute materially to their safety from aggression. In Locarno's bargain"ing Germany has been manoeuvring for national advantage. She still asks for the removal of restrictions on her airship-building activities, for modification of the League covenant in a way calculated to entrench her against Allied opposition to her eastern designs, and even —so it is rumoured —for a colonial mandate under the League. To grant these concessions would imperil the whole work of tho conference, for they may vitiate even the guarantees of security applying in the western region. At present the wider issues remain unsettled. The committee of jurists is considering points raised affecting the situation on the eastern frontier, and German representations concerning this region await review. The risk (if a break-down when these issues have further discussion. cannot be safely minimised, despite the measure of agreement reached and the optimism that prevails. So long as there is an influential party in Germany reiterating, that country's guiltlessness for the war and pressing for freedom of military organisation and national expansion, there is a serious possibility of Locarno's very promising work, producing no final settlement. There is jio short cut to peace. Germany's acceptance of terms may be bought at too high a price. The Allies' goodwill has been com mend ably manifested, but there is a point beyond which it i c not wise to go without better guarantees of Germany's good faith than have been so far convincingly given. The conference has succeeded only by evading its most difficult task. Its achievement will prove valuable, doubtless : but the western pact needs a parallel eastern agreement to make it fully effective.