THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 1935. A WISE DECISION.

Wairarapa Age, 22 March 1935, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 1935. A WISE DECISION.

Britain undoubtedly has done the right thing in deciding that discussion with Germany on the subject of security pacts and arms limitation shall proceed in spite of the disturbing effect of Herr Hitler’s announcement of the reintroduction of conscription in Germany. The mission on which Sir John Simon and Mr. Anthony Eden are to go to Berlin at the end of this week may or may not produce results, but it is certainly better that the programme should be carried out than that it should be abandoned. One French newspaper is quoted as predicting a deadlock in the Anglo-German negotiations at Berlin “with the rapid conclusion of Eastern European and Danubian pacts, without Germany, as the only solution.” A similar view has been expressed in England by the London “Morning I*ost,” a paper which habitually turns a jaundiced and pessimistic eye on the possibility of organising the world for peace. It must be plain enough to all who will face the facts that a reversion to the pre-war system of limited and hostile alliances would be no solution of any existing difficulty, and would amount to a collapse of all hopeful and constructive effort. It is too soon to assume that Europe and the world have arrived at this sorry pass. A deadlock obviously is possible, not merely in the impending conversations at Berlin, but in the process of European settlement at large, if France and other countries hope to fix on Germany an individual and particular odium for having violated the Treaty of Versailles. Any attempt on these lines must break down for two reasons. It is perhaps enough that Germany most certainly will refuse to be specially branded in this way, but it should count for even more that there is no truth in the charge that she has been guilty of a unilateral breach of the treaty. Any act of policy which brings war into nearer prospect must be condemned, and Germany’s reintroduction of conscription plainly stands in this category. It is definitely a breach of the treaty, but the formerly Allied powers had already as definitely violated that instrument in failing to carry our mutual measures of armament limitation.

Time and events have demonstrated the futility of attempting to promote disarmament with France and other powers seeking to maintain a decisive superiority over Germany in armaments. Germany has now carried her assertion of equality to a point at which it must either be accepted, or suppressed by an exercise of armed force. Even if the latter alternative were adopted, there would be only a temporary solution of the problem involved unless the German nation, were wiped out. It remains to ascertain what can be done to establish and safeguard peace with Germany restored to a full partnership in the comity of nations. The immediate object of the British mission to Berlin no doubt is to bring out the facts from this standpoint. The outcome will depend, not merely on the measure of agreement reached by Britain and Germany, but very vitally on what France, Italy, Russia and other powers are prepared to do in the conditions now established. If France and other nations are determined to hold Germany up to international reprobation as the only violator of the Treaty of Versailles, it is obvious that no progress in the right direction will be possible. At least, however, the real obstacles to European appeasement will then be in plainer Bight than at any time, perhaps, since the Peace Conference of 1919 dispersed.