The New Zealand Times. FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 1920. EUROPEAN RECONSTRUCTION

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10536, 12 March 1920, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 1920. EUROPEAN RECONSTRUCTION

The German idea of reconstructing Europe is to Germanise Russia. This idea came forth before the world, when the Kaiser subsidised the scoundrel Rasputin and the traitor yon Stunner, ft shone again, and more balefully, when Lenin and Trotsky got back to Russia with the help of German money and German propaganda. It made its greatest gain with the treaties of Brest-Litovsk and Bucharest! It ought to have disappeared with the Armistice, but, thanks to , the pacifists and the international Bolsheviks, the idea revived, and caused the great disturbances in the Baltic countries made infamous by the names of von der Goltz, Bermont, and other Prussians. Vanquished in the end by tho border people —consolidated by Gorman barbarity and treachery—tho Gormans of tho pan-German faction fell back on other tactics, forking with the pacifists, the internationalists and tho sentimentalists, who never learn anything, they have begun to work for tho restoration of Germany to the pre-war position. Hence tho dilly-dallies over the Treaty; tho impudent demand for tbo trial of the Gorman war criminals; the mendacious construction of a list of Allied war criminals; the infraction of tho military conditions of tho Treaty; and tho open exploiting of Rusfcia. On tho other hand, through the machinations of tho pacifists and internationals, there is a growing agitation to take Germany into the League of Nations and give it tho commanding position therein. This influence brought about the treacherous abandonment of tho patriotic Russian parties fighting Bolshevist anarchy. The revelations of Mr Bullitt have proved that the British Prime Minister was ready to conclude peace with the Bolsheviks at the very worst moments in their career of anarchy. The breach of the election pro-

mises to make Germany pay has revealed his sympathy with Germany. It would riot be surprising to learn of a scheme cut and dried to give to Germany restoration in Europe, remission of further obligations, and u

free hand to coerce the Soviet Government of Russia. It is some time since an indignant Frenchman accused tho Entente of destroying the fruits of ihc greatest of victories by moans of the greatest known sabotage. Sometimes the cable messages' almost persuade us that this is a literal and exact statement of the truth.

From this survey we leave out America, because America has definitely gone out under cover of indefinite Presidential explanations periodically and indefinitely altered, and references quite incomprehensible and also quite indefinite to Presidential ideas towards Italians and Jugo-Slavs. For what remains of the Entente, the attitude towards Turkey is sufficient to excite the gravest suspicion. After tho overthrow of Turkey, nothing was left in logic, justice, humanity, expediency, hut tbo break-up of that too-iong-endured abomination of desolation. According to promises, the murderers "of Armenia were, to have exemplary punishment; Syria, Mesopotamia, Arabia, and Armenia were to have had stable government of tho strongest; the great sea-way between Europe and Asia was to be opened; and the Crescent on. St. Sophia was to give way to the Cross. It became evident very soon that the murder of, Armenians was to be allowed to go on wholesale; that the countries named wore being hold in the manner they would ho hold if evacuation in three mouths were agreed upon. A statement was actually put forward that only half tho famous sea-road was to bo held, and that the holders wero to bo dominated from Constantinople by the Unspeakable Turk, holding therq greater power than ever. Loud and righteous clamour has stopped this arrangement, whether representing drift or deliberation it is useless to discuss, for both are equally nefarious and scandalous. But whether the stoppage is merely temporary, so that tho march back down to the old infernal regions may be resumed when the public gets to sleep again, remains to be seen.

The redeeming faot is the presence of Marshal Foch in Poland with a mission. Poland is now a real buffer State, with the finest army outside the Entente countries, formed by the great patriot, Pilsudski, while his colleague, Paderewski, was presenting his country in its proper light to the world, and others were consolidating the bruised and worn people. Poland stopped the Bolshevik rush westwards. Poland was cheated, cajoled, betrayed by tho Entente, but Poland stopped that ugly rush. Poland ought to have had a seaport on the Baltic, and one such had been Polish for centuries, until taken off by the robber hands of the Hohenzollern. Poland is still without that port, but it is recognised that Poland is the buffer State between Germany and Russia, and must become great. That France is the chief mover in this practical recognition is proved by the selection of Marshal Foch to settle tho Polish military situation. Roumauia is in the line of buffer resistance with Poland, and Roumania may be similarly helped. The two countries represent a policy which may ensure permanent peace on right lines. The alternative is the restoration of Germany, with power to carry out tho original aggressive plan against the world, now greatly weakened from its high estate of November, 1918.