Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, TUESDAY, AUGUST 29, 1933. EUROPEAN PACT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18179, 29 August 1933, Page 4

Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, TUESDAY, AUGUST 29, 1933. EUROPEAN PACT

Public attention was so closely centred upon the London Conference a few weeks ago that it allowed to pass almost unnoticed a very significant development in the European political situation. Paradoxical as it may seem, the most important outcome of the World Economic Conference was that which it did not set ;Out to achieve, and which, in fact, did not come within the purview of its deliberations. The fact, as one correspondent puts it, was accomplished behind its back and the Conference hardly noticed it. What happened j may be described as a regrouping of the military and naval nations in a non-aggression pact, regarded in some quarters as a distinct gain to European stability and in others as constituting a new war threat. The agreement arrived at in quiet conclaves between the statesmen assembled at the Conference was in the form of a convention for the definition of what constitutes aggression between states 'that might lead to war. It was promoted by Soviet Russia and was signed by Afghanistan, Persia, Esthonia, Latvia, Poland, Lithuania, Rumania, and Turkey—in a word, by all the states whose frontiers anywhere adjoins Russia's, except India and China. All these states agree that the outlawry of war as imposed by the Pact of Paris prohibits aggression of any kind by one country toward another. Therefore they define just what they think ag-j gross ion to be, “in order to preclude any pretext for justifying it." The' provisions constituting the definition are so framed as clearly covering ■such contingencies as Japan's vasion of China and the Nazis' support of armed bands making (trouble j in Austria. In fact the pacts taken; together may be regarded as a diplomatic triumph for the Soviet, for they have at a single blow protect-! ed their whole European frontier;] settled by means of letting it rest in abeyance, their quarrel with Rumania over Bessarabia; and gained the friendship of Poland, in the politi- f cal sense, that is, against possible friction with Germany. “The Union of Socialist Soviet Republics," com-! ments the Times, “can now turn toj the Far East without the anxiety that), its. absorption there .might! be ex-j ploited in the West. Similarly the neighbors of Germany, should; they become involved with Nazi bands, willj not feel that Soviet Russia is going to snatch advantages out of their cm-* broilmont." That is, pf course, if Soviet Russia is to be trusted. Actually, on its face value, the pact reinforces the prospects of peace and the abolition of war between 265,000,000 people. It was hurried to a conclusion largely because of the fear in Poland and Central Europe of what Hitler, once he has completed his plan for a Nazi fatherland, may do : in the sphere of foreign affairs. Hitler is not trusted in Eastern Europe, and the Soviet, resentful of tho treatment of Communists in. Germany, are preparing for further eventualities, apparently not relying on the treaty of friendship with Germany entered into at Rapallo in 1922. Poland is just as fearful of tho poisonous spread of Communistic 'propaganda among her. people as ever she

was, but she is more afraid of Hitler's Germany. Rumania is under no illusion that the Russians have finally abandoned., all hope of recovering Bessarabia, but she realises that her one chance of keeping them at bay is her alliance with a virile and cohesive Little Entente, and well she knows that a revived Germany would soon curb the independent spirirt of Czech,o-Slovakia and might conceivably paralyse the power of France to protect her proteges in Eastern Europe. “Whatever else Hitler has .done," remarks one commentator, “he has revived .the apprehensions of Europe. France is no longer the despot of tho Continent; she is its defender. Outside of the Italian circle, she has nothing but friends from the Bay ,of Biscay to the Urals. Even Italy is no longer so eager to bring about alterations in the map to the advantage of a Germany which makes no secret of its intention to embroil the Continent the first time it sees an advantage in doing so. The interest in all this is that a new war factor of colossal proportions has suddenly injected itself into the European picture." That thq future is viewed with uncertainty may bo gathered from the revival of interest in defence measures in Britain, for whilst our people may consider themselves outside the scope of European entanglements those in authority know how dangerous England's position would be if a clash eventuated, with the possibility—remote we hope—of a Nazi Germany .dominate ing Europe.