PRESENT BAY EUROPE.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16036, 29 January 1920, Page 5

PRESENT BAY EUROPE.

TERMS OF PEACE CRITICISED.

BY VISCOUNT BRYCE,

(Aus. & N.Z. Cable Assn. 2k Renter.) LONDON, January 27.

Viscount Bryoe contributes an article to the Anglo-American supplement of the Manchester Guardian discussing the question as to whether America realises the condition of present-day Europe. YGscount Bryce makes allowances for the embarrassments which, best the Peace Conference, for the discordance of views, for the atmosphere of revengeful passion, for the incessant Press interferences, and for the complexity of the problems, but he contends that whatever allowances must be made the conference failed to solve the problems presented to it. He considers there are no elements of stability in the settlement, indeed new causes of strife have been super-added to existing ones. Tire indemnities and reparations are excessive, ■especially as regards Australia. Viscount Bryce eloquently describes the appalling material condition of Europe, maintaining that the mental condition is no less alarming. Britain is only beginning to realise how her own welfare is involved, while the American people havo not yet wakened to the facts of the position. Viscount Bryoe adds that the truth is the world has now become, for good or ill, one community, in “which if any member suffers all suffer. He emphasised that the apparent allofness of America is due to want of knowledge, not to want of sympathy. The picture of Europe as seen in Britain is veiled from the Americans by the mists in tlie Atlantic. He points out that it took America many months to realise the causes of the war, and he is not surprised that the post-war condition of Europe is not immediately realised, although American idealism and sympathy could not be doubted.