The London Conference
THE civilized world has taken a century to learn the lesson taught by Lord Castlereagh : Let the nations confer. It is one of the proofs of the influence of the spirit of association as practised at Geneva since the War that the nations have acquired the habit of conferring, and the habit bids fair to become the rule. We cannot be too thankful for this habit, for its direct and indirect effects have been on the whole immeasurably good. It has its dangers, of course. Politicians with their weakness, may be, for publicity, with the ignorance of some of them of the conditions and history of foreign countries, and even of geography, may oust the trained diplomat who has acquired the qualifications that are needed but to whom plenipotentiary authority is naturally grudged. The art of conferring is itself one of these qualifications. Fortunately we have confidence on this point in the most important politicians now engaged. His Majesty's Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs have proved themselves adepts. M. Briand has from his long service at the Quai d'Orsay acquired the virtues of a diplomat. The French Premier, who is, outwardly at any rate, taking the leadership of the French in these matters from M. Briand's hands, is not yet proved to the world, but we are greatly en- couraged by the results of his conversations with the German representatives in Paris last week. To stand up boldly for a cause, however good, is not to confer. A rigidity in resisting a cause pleaded by others, however bad, is an offence in conference. (If Mr. Snowden takes a prominent part this week, we could have no more staunch defender of the rights of the British taxpayer against the foreigner, but we suggest that he will need an aide-memoire perpetually before him ; it need be no more than two golden letters, the annotators' abbrevia- tion, " Cf.") Yet so far as boldness is needed, and is compatible with " conferring," our representatives may well feel boldly confident that they are at this London Conference trusted by the British people to do their best for the world and the kingdom that they represent.
Further, for the purpose of " conferring " we especially welcome the presence of the United States Secretary of State and Secretary to the Treasury, because they are regular members of the Conference, uncribbed by the restrictions implied in the title of " observer " by which the value of American representatives in Europe has so often been limited. We expect Mr. Stimson and Mr. Mellon to make such a conspicuously valuable contribution that in American eyes the danger of " entanglement " by representation will, for the future, be outweighed. Europe may well benefit if the precedent is imposed this week by the obvious unreality that would have hampered discussions of Mr. Hoover's proposals without full American membership of the Conference.
So much for the composition of the Conference. It has been summoned in haste with none of the pomp and circumstance to which we have been accustomed, but there is a consciousness that in importance it sur- passes those which have been prepared with care and trumpets. There is a real and world-wide alarm lest, if the nations cannot co-operate now, Germany must collapse and in her fall ruin should overwhelm the rest of us. The Conference is to seek a way of self-preserva- tion, and this primary instinct will prevail. If good will does not carry it through to some success, then we still look to the lower motive, fear, to be the cementing force that will hold it together until salvage is achieved. But we know that good will is present among most of the representative members, and in the one doubtful quarter there is good reason to suppose that the Frenchmen and Germans who met in Paris last week had con- versations from which ill will and suspieion disappeared. If the French Press is not helping to promote 'confidence and good will, the place of meeting is well chosen to modify its influence on the Conference.
The public is very properly ignorant of the details of the present discussions. If the Treasury and banking experts are convinced that the first necessary step is to provide a credit, to be converted presently into a loan to Germany, we accept that. If the security is to be the Customs of the Reich; there is precedent for that. But we shrink from the rumoured control of the Customs to be exercised by the creditors. " Inter- Allied Control " in Germany is a phrase that stood for What was right and necessary for some years after the Armistice. As a necessary evil it lived and took an unconscionable time a-dying, but we hoped that it was dead. It is not the right expression of the neighbourliness that we have been , cherishing and, further, any tactless insistence on more " control " than any borrower should be willing to admit will do instant damage inside Germany. The extremists there already threaten to seize upon it for their own ends and will use it as a stick with which to beat their Government. The way in which the successive Governments of .Germany have for twelve years led their people along the path of restitution for wrong done with the burden of suffering entailed has astonished us. But there is a limit upon this success. The rise of the Nazis and the power of the Communists are partly due to increased impatience against the Allies and to decreased respect for the sentence pronounced at Versailles. This is natural and it must be taken into reckoning. The Conference is bound to feel that one of its duties is not to make the German Government so unpopular at home that it will fall. If its position becomes untenable, chaos will follow quickly and remain for a long time. For this reason we dread the interpretations that may be put upon the words, " political pacification," which are said to represent one condition set by France. It will be dangerous in the extreme if the Germans take this to mean political stabilization, not only excluding a particular matter such as the Austrian Zollverein, but more generally re-establishing the Treaty of Ver- sailles as the inviolable Ark of tile Covenant. That such a complicated product of fallible human judgement should have endured through twelve years of violent change is more remarkable than the survival of our XXXIX Articles, unchanged for nearly four centuries. To insist that no new light has been let in " thro' Chinks that Time has made " is now impossible, quite apart from any question of formal revision.
Lastly, time is of the essence of the business of saving the finances of Germany, and nothing must delay action there. But the Conference must keep the future in mind. The urgent salvage of to-day will not establish Germany or anyone else firmly for long, and Germany and the rest of us bitterly need a surer and longer prospect of established security. President Hoover's proposals and the present crisis together cry out to the world to seize this moment to prevent such a crisis returning. It will be a poor success that overcomes the crisis of to..-day and sets the date for the next. _
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