The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1923. A THREATENING SKY.

Southland Times, Issue 19099, 17 November 1923, Page 4

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1923. A THREATENING SKY.

No comment on the situation in Europe has been more damaging to M. Poincare’s policy than the judicial utterance by Viscount Grey in the course of a speech at Bath. Lord Grey cannot be called an enemy of France, and it cannot be said that he is a scare-monger, but he appears boldly as a prophet of armed conflict, and puts the responsibility for this menace of bloodshed on the shoulders of the French Premier. His grave warning, too, is in accord with the declaration by General Smuts, who sees the dangers ahead. Events in Germany have taken a new course in recent times, and the return of the, exCrown Prince is a symptom concerning which the Allies cannot deceive themselves, but the evidence on which Lord Grey bases his forecast goes back to the fundamental fact that France has pursued a policy which has led to a series of mistakes and has estranged British opinion. M. Poincare may complain that the British Government did not support him actively, but at the outset he accepted the position and went ahead knowing that Mr Bonar Law was opposed to the line of action adopted by France. It was not until Mr Baldwin took office that Britain re-asserted herself and by that time it was apparent that the French move had fallen short of its object. The evil of M. Poincare’s lone-hand policy was that its failure could not do anything but show the Germans how to resist the Allies with some hope of success and open the way to more dangerous resistance on her part than anything she had previously attempted. Lord Grey knows that Europe is still an armed camp and that France is strong from the military standpoint, but another war will not solve the problem with which M. Poincare so far has wreotled in vain, because his only means of obtaining his redress will then be by acquisition of territory, a method which will not be lightly accepted by the Powers of Europe. The Ambassadors’ Conference has reached a deadlock on two vital questions involving intervention in Germany’s affairs, and this halt has a significance which will not be lost on the Germans. Under the Ver-

sailles Treaty the powers of the Allies and their line of conduct are not open to doubt, but evidently the representatives of the nations are dubious concerning the expediency of indulging in further military commitments and of demanding the ex-Crown Prince as a War Criminal. When the Allies agreed to the trial of German officers and men by a German tribunal for crimes committed during the war they went perilously close to establishing a precedent which the Berlin Government will not be slow to claim if any question of the trial of the exCrown Prince is involved. The constitutional questions involved in the status of the Crown Prince of Prussia in decisions affecting international affairs are of an extremely interesting nature, and when the charges against this man arc reduced to fundamentals it will be found that they cannot be sustained in a court of common justice. His trial and his punishment might come as a display of power and as the execution of revenge, but that would mean his elevation to a place among the nation’s heroes and leave the Allies with further difficulties on their hands. The signs of rifts in the Ambassadors’ Conference have inspired the Morning Post to declare that the Versailles Treaty is crumbling, a view which supports the warning from Lord Grey that the sky in Europe is threatening. If France decides to move again the Continent will move to the brink of war, and the Imperial Government will be faced with issues which will demand the fullest co-operation among her statesmen. The country does not want war and will not tolerate any suggestion of intervention unless it is clear that there is no other possibility. Neutrality may be demanded, and if the nation does remain neutral a new alignment of the Powers in Europe will become inevitable.