Current Literature
HOW EUROPE MADE PEACE WITHOUT AMERICA. By Frank H. Simonds. (Heinemann. 21s.)—Dr. Simonds's racy and well-informed sketch of the diplomatic history of Europe from the Treaty of Versailles to the Pact of Locarno was primarily intended for the American public, but it will interest English readers, especially if they want to understand the American attitude towards European problems. Dr. Simonds is an impressionist ; he tries to simplify complex situations and he tends at times to exaggerate clashes of opinion. Yet he conveys accurately enough the French point of view, and he is right in emphasizing the bitter disappoint- ment occasioned to the Allies by the refusal of the American Senate to ratify the Peace Treaty, with the Covenant, and the Treaty of Guarantee. In claiming for his countrymen the whole credit of the Dawes Report he goes much too far, but it is true that American co-operation in this matter has helped materially and morally to reawaken hope in Europe. Dr. Simonds criticizes very seriously the late American Secretary of State for his conduct of the Washington Conference ; we should have said that Mr. Hughes did very well in a difficult situation. Furthermore, the author declares that " American foreign policy is based upon popular estimates of European conditions rather than upon any actual appraisal of existing conditions," and that " the distance between the United States and the New Europe, which is unquestionably taking form, is visibly widening from year to year." Yet Dr. Simonds admits that " American appearance at Geneva is likely to be increasingly frequent," and that must cause the American people to take more interest in the affairs of Europe. After all, no one country, however large and rich, can afford to cut itself off altogether from the rest of the world.
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