EUROPE TO-DAY
THERE is gloom enough at home and abroad. Grim events throw shadows in Asia and Africa. Threat- ening tendencies can be discerned by those who seek them throughout Europe, ,while in Great Britain the despondency over our material conditions, is the deepest known for a century. Yet we see through the clouds streaks of light which ought to promise better things, improvements that will be of wider effect than the tyrannies that oppress us, the uncertainties that bring us near to despair. The signs we see are of good will and confidence which have been lacking for a decade. If they do .not return, we are lost morally and materially.
But we believe that the signs are more visible than at any time since the Peace Treaties disappointed the hopes that we had rashly encouraged. If good will and confi- dence, which left the world like Astraea, return, then security, progress, exchange of products will begin to flow from them ; they are realities, and the words of a Security Pact their symbols.
The first sign this year was one that should have cheered everyone in February. Germany, of whom we still by habit think as either bullying or cringing, as blustering so tactlessly that even would-be friends cannot help her ; Germany with an unstable Government of apparently second-rate men unable to gain the support of a great part of the nation just when a national and powerful rule is needed to pull her together after defeat ; Germany advanced spontaneously, almost graciously, with her proposals for the. Security Pact. She offered to bind herself voluntarily to sections of the Treaty which she signed involuntarily, even to renunciation of all hope of regaining Alsace and Lorraine. And her Pact presupposed a Rhineland Pact to carry out Sections 42-44 of the Treaty, implying a demilitarized zone all in German territory. She made no demand, though she may have hopes that some of the zone may lie across her frontier. And how was her offer received by the ex-enemies concerned, by France and by Belgium, who says " ditto " to her great Ally ? It was received in a businesslike and reasonable manner. We do not like all France's views that can be discovered in the White Paper, particularly her views that spring from her policy in Eastern Europe. But the tone and spirit of the corre- spondence were new and refreshing. In the past we have seen pronouncements to Germany worded by Frenchmen, proclamations for instance to Rhinelanders or Silesians, couched in glowing terms of unexceptional benevolence. But they did not ring true, and they were cynically, even brutally, flouted in action. The words of her statesmen ring differently now. We have often been impatient with France. When the cock has crowed blatantly we _ have wanted to stop our ears. When cruel Latin logic argues that obviously when his enemy is down-that is the best moment for a sensible man to kick him, we feel that we can help no more. When our Ally airily treats debts as not existing, we feel that she is "impossible." Who or what, then, has brought about a great change ? _ We attribute it partly to M, Herriot and M. Painleve ; perhaps M. Briand has done more than either to encourage it. But there are two others to whom we attribute the greatest share : Abdel Krim and Joseph Caillaux.
Men and money are being lost in the sands of Morocco, and so far. nothing is being gained, just when France can least afford either ; and Frenchmen realise that they do not see the end of that trouble. At home they realise their financial plight and pin their faith to M. Caillaux, -whom fox:Other reasons they would not welcome as their saviour. He has Made his colleagues and his countrymen see that the comfortable internal circulation of paper money is not enough ; that the astute schemes of the Comae des Forges and others are more valuable, but still, not enough. Nothing will be enough for salvation that is .gained by domination, not by co-operation. France is in trouble again and knows it. She feels that Europe'4 good will and confidence are vital to her. Her appeals, like a troubled woman's, are irresistible to our hearts. But reasonableness is not a lasting quality in women or Latin races, and for everybody's sake we must seize on it while it lasts. So far France has taken the British demands in regard to the Pact admirably. Mr. Chamber- lain's speech of last week was warmly received in Paris and most respectfully in Berlin. This should encourage him to continue firmly on the same course. At home, too, he has " general support even from those who believe that the Treaty of Mutual Assistance or the Protocol would have served us better. A few still stand out for isolation, but would they approve the corollary, with- drawal from the League of Nations ? We cannot with honour, or even with safety (such is the irony of words), carry to extremes the mottoes " Safety First " or " Sinn Fein." The need is to choose wisely where to draw the line, admitting that there must be risks of war to be taken unless we control the actions and passions of all the world. The line should in our opinion be as near as possible to the line already drawn for us by the Covenant of the League. We believe that Mr. Chamberlain too wants to shift it as little as may be. If he is firm and sympathetic with France, that is where the line will be drawn.
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