Among all the foreign comment which we have read on
Mr. Snowden's conduct at The Hague, we appreciate most that in the New York World. For example :- If we understand Mr. Snowden's position, it comes down to the insistence that at this conference the usual rOles are to be reversed. This time France is to bid and pay in some kind of coinage for British support of a plan which is framed to promote the general interests of Europe, whereas in the past it is the British who have always had to bid and pay for French support. It is surprising. But it is surprising only because it is a British Government which has taken such a position. If France or Italy or th4 United States were threatening to disrupt the conference because its nationalistic interests were not attfficiently placated, the 'world would feel that everything was proceeding normally. How, then, can one account for this sudden change of attitude ? It is not difficult, we think, to eytplain it.' For ten years the British' have stood for a policy which meant the merging of immediate national rights in the longer international interest. They have had to deal with obstruc- tion and reluctance in pursuing this policy, and gradually the conviction has crystallized in the minds of the British people that they were the mulch cow of Europe. It is probable that Mr. Snowden has helped to remind the Continental Powers rather vividly that international appeasement is not something they reluctantly consent to, when they have been paid their price, but something they themselves need so badly that it is worth paying a heavy price to get.
