Danubian Reconstruction The conversations regarding the Danubian countries mid their
fate are going forward at Geneva, M. Tardieu and Dr. Beres being naturally prominent in connexion with them. The need for action of some kind is increasingly manifest, and France would probably be ready to find money for any reasonably modest loans to meet immediate necessities provided the scheme adopted was broadly on the lines of the French proposals. Dr. Seton-Watson may be right in suggesting that the key-positions are Prague and Buda-Pesth, but some- thing much wider than a Hungaro-Czechoslovakian agreement is needed, even as a first step. Austria and Hungary and the three Little Entente countries must all come into it, and while there ought to he no demand for the permanent abandonment or political claims, there certainly must he a cessation from hostile or provocative propaganda as condition of an economic entente. The most serious obstacle to overcome is Germany's fear that an arrangement which identifies Austria so closely with her Danubian neighbours will close the door on the Anschluss for ever. That is not necessarily so, and even if it were the destinies of the Danubian States ought not to be sacrificed to Pan-German aspirations. Our own Government, which is understood to favour the proposals now under discussion, might discreetly emphasize that at Berlin. * * *
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