IMPRESSIONS OF EUROPE

Southland Times, Issue 23380, 11 December 1937, Page 8

IMPRESSIONS OF EUROPE

11. The League Of Nations, War In Spain, Modern Italy

(SPECIALLY WRITTEN FOR THE SOUTHLAND TIMES]

By

F. G. HALL-JONES,

New Zealand District Governor of Rotary

Through the vineyards of Burgundy and. Champagne and over the Juras we came to the Paradise of Switzerland, and in particular to Montreux at the head of Lake Geneva. We circled the lake on a visit to Geneva, passing along the French shore line of Savoy. The term “the Swiss Navy” is generally used to typify something non-existent, but if ever there was a war between France and Switzerland some miniature naval activity would certainly take place on Lake Geneva. We saw the League of Nations building, literally deluged with rain and metaphorically also under a cloud. The League has its ardent supporters and its cynical detractors: what is to be the attitude of plain John Citizen? We can omit its minor activities, the value of which no one disputes, but will the League prevent a European war? I was impressed by the reverential awe of three or four South Americans of different nationalities who expressed the opinion that in the League, South America—particularly after the bloody and costly futility of the Bolivia-Paraguay warhad found an antidote to those intermittent military fevers which ravage their continent. Will the same remarks apply to Europe? A VIEW OF THE LEAGUE Admittedly the League has failed to stop three wars, in Abyssinia, Manchukuo and China. In each case the point has been raised of an ineffective sovereignty—the inability of the country attacked to control its nationals—and in each case the war has been characterized as a punitive expedition to terminate a state of affairs intolerable to the aggressor. Apart from the League aspect of the matter, European public opinion refuses to condemn Italy for her action in Abyssinia, and apparently world opinion refuses to condemn Japan for restoring law and order to Manchukuo. The Chinese outbreak has of course occurred since, and that is too large a matter to be discussed here. The most serious Continental allegation against the League is that under the domination of France it has striven only to maintain the status quo, setting as in concrete the universally condemned terms of the Versailles Treaty, instead of adopting the wiser policy of revision. In the latter event, they say, democracy would have succeeded in Germany. As it was the democratic Government, humiliated at every turn, could not withstand the rising tide of Communism and despair, till the Nazi Government took without any beg pardons all that its predecessors had sought in vain and much more as well. France, they say, “made” Hitler. The occupation of the Rhine with coloured troops aroused his fury; the Ruhr occupation, which was strongly opposed by Britain as futile, put the Nazi party on the map, and France’s remorseless breaking of the AustroGerman Customs Union through her financial resources aligned the German financiers and business men behind Hitler, eventually bringing him into power. A wiser League would have avoided all this, but the League at that time was virtually France, while Britain was disarmed and impotent. _ I should mention that if the United States had ratified in 1919 the guarantee by themselves and Great Britain of her Eastern frontier, France would have been' both able and willing to participate in a progressive policy of revision and the present situation would never have arisen.

We may be pardoned, I think, if we regard the League in the same aspect as every other nation. Britain, France and Russia, possessing all they desire will support the League for its maintenance of the status quo. The fact that it may avert war makes it our first line of defence, the fact that it may not compels our present rearmament programme. From this aspect it is right that every supporter of the League who is a true patriot should also support the Imperial and local defence forces. France, Italy and Japan are anti-League not because the two former are dictator countries but because their wants, which they consider to be reasonable wants, are not satisfied. It is merely superficial to attribute militant aggressiveness to dictatorship; Stalin and Kamal are as absolute dictators as Hitler and Mussolini. It would be equally a mistake to attribute the Great War to monarchy.

The idealism of peace as propounded by the speech makers is certainly very laudable, but the Abyssinian war has taught us that it takes two to make a quarrel but only one to make a war. Any nation that bases its defence on such idealism will undoubtedly pass under the wheels of history. Mussolini perceived that a few years ago as clearly as we do today. Those who ask the League to plunge the whole world into war because of a potential or active local war, on the theory that peace is one and indivisible, are overwhelmed with reproof as was exemplified at the Imperial Conference. Mussolini years ago drew the metaphor of the League as a loud speaker, tending to amplify minor disputes into a world war. Let us be both logical .-.nd thorough: support the League, support Britain’s rearmament programme and support our local defence forces. Despite its mountains and its size, for it could be lost in the backblocks of the North Island, Switzerland supports nearly three times our population. Owing to the most efficient forestry system in the world the rivers do not flood the flat valleys. The Rhone is confined to artificial banks and the hillsides are terraced with vineyards. The people are of three types and speak three languages, French, German and Italian, but in their bitter struggle for political and religious liberty have become strongly Nationalistic. Compulsory military training is a matter of course and the people are as hard working and thrifty as they are attentive to visitors.

At Nice I conversed with some interesting people of all nations. One had travelled from China through Siberia two or three weeks earlier, and had seen trainloads of exiles, their tragic eyes gazing out through the narrow slits of the carriages. I was anxious to . ascertain the position in Spain, and found in a Dane one who knew the country well though he had not visited there for about two years.

This is his summing-up of the revolution. ~ , On the abdication of Alfonso, that rapacious monarch strangely susceptible to bribery and corruption, political power eventually developed to the hands of the workers, who in contrast to the British race are completely unversed in the arts of Government Democracy was their theoretical creed and one of their intellectuals published a pamphlet on Spain’s democratic idealism which attracted favourable attention in England but .unfortunately was never put into practice. Italy ana Germany were Spain’s traditional friends but under the workers’ Government, Russia became the predominant influence until Bolshevism reigned supreme in its bloodiest form. The churches and worst of all the nunneries were ravaged with ferocious cruelty, priests were murdered by hired assassins, merchants were exploited ana shot without any form of trial, until the bourgeoisie in self defence headed a revolt under Franco with the support of their historic friends who were no less eager to prevent the spread of Communism in Europe. The figures quoted to me, namely 10,000 nuns, 30,000 priests and a quarter million other non-combatants assassinated under the Government regime, are ample justification for the insurgents’ revolt if they are authentic, . or even exaggerated tenfold. The whole of the Spanish Treasury went to Russia for the purchase of munitions, exploding for all time the theory that Government manufacture of armaments will prevent the traffic in arms. The greater part of the navy was in the Government hands but was rendered useless by the Communists’ habit of shooting their officers. Both • volunteers and munitions came from nearly all the European countries according to their political convictions. My informant predicted that Franco would probably win but that Spain would be exhausted and ruined in the struggle. The supply of armaments from abroad would certainly sway the course of events, but even without armaments the two parties would fight to a finish with knives and bare fists. There is no room for compromise. Britain would have a strong financial hand on which to bid for the rebuilding of Spain but this might be nullified if she strongly antagonized the winning side. Her policy of non-inter-vention is approved by all, and has certainly localized the conflict, but her refusal to accord belligerent rights to Franco is considered unjust. I learned on returning to London that quite a number from England had fought on the Government side. Some were captured by Franco, wisely treated with favour and repatriated to England where their interviews in The Daily Mail condemning the conduct and atrocities of the Government forces for which they had been induced to fight did much to enlighten and alter public opinion. The Basque children who found refuge in England have done much, by their general conduct and by their communist method of salute with the clenched fist, to antagonize British opinion towards their cause. More recently I learn that life has gone back to normal in that twothirds of Spain, containing two-thirds Spanish population, has come under Franco’s rule. My informant’s views may not find favour among those who long to believe that the Spanish Government is a democratic body, but I would warn the critics of the danger in comparing the self-governing qualifications of the Spanish populace with those of the British peoples. EFFICIENCY IN ITALY After a week at Nice we embarked on a post-convention Cook’s tour through Northern Italy, Switzerland, Bavaria, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Germany. From the train there is ample evidence of the industry of the Italians and the efficiency of the population. The trains are punctual and a model of cleanliness, the stations are well controlled and all the farm dwellings, roads, etc., are in excellent order. Cultivation in the rich plains of Piemonte is as intense as in Belgium, with maize, rice and miles of golden wheat. Small bodies of soldiers at some stations were a fine looking lot with handsome and decorative uniforms. My impressions of Italy were gleaned later from fellow tourists of reliable judgment who had visited Rome and Naples. They say that in contrast to the old days when mendicants were wont to exhibit their hideous deformities, not a beggar is to be seen in the streets and all cripples are suitably cared for. As against the perpetual roar of Paris not a motor horn is to be heard in any large city in Italy by day or night. I heard ample evidence that in spite of an excessively burdensome taxation Mussolini has created a national spirit and a national efficiency in Italy. More surprising it was to hear favourable comment on his regime from several continental countries and from America. Mussolini it was, they say, who saved Central Europe at the time of the Dolfuss murder, and who has been more effective than the League of Nations in maintaining the peace of Europe. They attach no more importance to the Abyssinian episode than to our bombing of the raiders in Waziristan.

Britain is practically alone in adopting an antagonistic attitude towards Italy, thereby rupturing a friendbetween the two countries which dates back to the days of Garibaldi and even to Nelson. The trouble is supposed to have arisen at Stresa, where Mussolini certainly received the impression that his Ethiopian adventure would not be objected to by Britain. When business people in such countries as Rumania, which is sufficiently distant to be unprejudiced, express publicly their admiration for Mussolini’s efforts in promoting and maintaining peace we may perhaps wonder if our attitude is not one-sided. So far as conditions in Italy are concerned I presume the average one of us would rather be dead than live under the restrictions and regimentations of this or any other dictatorship, but there is no doubt that they are as suitable to the Italian temperament as democracy is to us. (To be continued)