NEWS OF I'VE
WEEK
No man has a better right to speak about the future of urope, in particular of Central Europe, than Dr. Benes, b both of his long experience as Foreign Minister and President of Czechoslovakia and of the sufferings his country has undergone as a result of the surrenders made at Munich. His speech at Man- chester last Saturday was full of constructive vision and practical suggestion. He postulates the fullest association of Soviet Russia in the affairs of the Continent That, of course, will depend largely on Russia herself, but the part she played at Geneva under M. Litvinoff in the middle thirties indicated no reluctance to participate in international co-operation. For Germany, which must of course be totally disarmed but cannot be wiped off the map of Europe, Dr. Benes foresees, or desires, a federation of autonomous States on the 1914, or a still earlier, model, but it would seem imperative that the local governments should be built up first during the period of Allied occupation and the process of federating them into a central Government come later. The one essential, said Dr. Benes, and there will be few to disagree with him, is to smash for ever the Pan-German Drang nach Osten gospel. If that is not done the in- terval between wars may be shorter than last time. The problem of the Danube Valley States remains, and here Dr. Benes, it would appear, still favours the idea of some kind of confederation, which alone can enable small and numerous political units to prosper economic- ally ; Czechoslovakia herself has already carried arrangements of this kind with her neighbour Poland to an advanced stage. Austria, it is assumed, would regain her full independence. Nothing more than a bare outline of reconstruction plans for Europe can be given in a single address, but this particular outline is an admirable basis for a considered picture, with the details to be filled in gradually.
