Correspondence
A LETTER FROM GENEVA—THE ECLIPSE OF TILE QUAT D'ORSAY. [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—The first week of the Eleventh Assembly of the League of Nations has been one of the most heartening experiences since its foundation. The omens were anything but pro- pitious—a dismal year's record of conferences that failed in their objector went off at half-cock—not excluding the London Naval Conference ; the shadow of the German elections, the revival of Nationalist bitterness in France, Germany and Poland, and the unbroken Franco-Italian deadlock, owing to which, it was supposed the British dele- gation here could do little more than mark time. (The fear expressed in the Spectator a month ago that Great Britain night be forced into the position of supporting France's lost cause," if there should be a combined German-Italian onslaught on the settlement of Versailles seemed likely to be confirmed when Le Temps celebrated Mr. Henderson's tea-table talk in Paris with M. Briand on his way to Geneva by a characteristic leading article taken down from the Pigeon-hole, marked Entente Cordiak.) Finally, there was the Memorandum on the Federal Union of Europe bearing the hall-mark:of the Quai d'Orsay whereby, iVwas thought, Briand with his tteeustomed skill woUld contrive to draw
a Red herring across the path to peace, and even paralyse the political and economic disarmament work of the League altogether by evoking the spectre of Soviet Russia. But, on the contrary. Geneva has proved herself; the famous " atmosphere " has shown itself to consist of MUCII more than wind-hag oratory and misty idealism. The League has, in fact, entered upon its second decade in a manner that inspires the utmost confidence. There is a sensible and businesslike air —with which, indeed, Mr. Henderson's speech was excellently in keeping about the whole proceedings. You sense the new atmosphere from the moment you enter the Biaiment Electoral, where the Assembly is being held this year for the first time. Instead of the gloom and stuffiness of the Salle de in Reformation there is light and air in abundance, a hall shaped to give a maximum of convenience both for platform and audience - —and last, but by no means least—a President of tile Assembly who knows how to conduct the proceedings in a dignified and businesslike manner. By a large majority of votes M. Titulesco of Rumania—well known in London was dected to this office, and it is sheer pleasure to observe his skill and hear his admirably-articulated French.
The tables have been turned with a vengeance. The present writer, in common with many students of international affairs, had quite expected to see France's delegation using the project of European Union. both as a shield to consolidate her limitless claim to " security," and as a spearhead to reconquer the leadership of the League %Odell Wils hers until the momentous return of the British Labour Govermnent last year. And that might well have 111C/11it a gearing-up of all that machinery of " sanctions " which, as was pointed out in a letter in the Spectator last week, belongs to the thought- processes of an earlier age that had not even laid the founda- tions of international co-operation. Not M. Briand, however, whose speech this year was generally rated as a second-rate performance, but Mr. Henderson in the careful but emphatic statement which he read on behalf of Great Britain on Thursi lay afternoon (September 11th), has given the key-note to the Eleventh Assembly, and, one hears on all sides, restored to Britain the undisputed moral leadership of this side of the world.
I have not space here to analyze Mr. Henderson's remarks. He undoubtedly scored a bull when he intimated that the international obligation to reduce armaments in Article a of the Covenant formed quite us important and " sacred " a part of the Treaties of Peace as any other obligation which those treaties contained. And he continued the argument —thus taking the war right into the adversary's camp --by recalling the solemn resolution adopted by the Assembly two years ago that the conditions of security were sufficient to allow of the conclusion of a first general convention for the reduction and limitation of armaments. Since Ow first linking of disarmament with " security " there had been first and foremost the Kellogg Pact. then the Locurno Treaties, then the General Act—Or open treaty of all inclusive pacific settlement which Great Britain and the Dominions will shortly be signing to complete the progress in arbitration, signalized by the general acceptance of the Optional Clause of The Hague Statute. Here is security and arbitration, Mr. Henderson seemed to say to the French, but where is the third element of your trilogy—disarmament ? And he touched a responsive chord in the international conscience represented by the delegates of fifty-two nations when be added, " Every member of the Assembly knows in his heart that, of all measures of security disarmament is in itself the most important.'
Time net result is that the spiritual energies of the League have been stirred as never before. Mr. Henderson's appeal to the League to justify itself in the eyes of the world by pressing on with the moral and practical disarmament which is its raison &Ore has been echoed by the representatives of Belgium, of Switzerland. of Denmark, Sweden, R.e., no less than by General Hertzog and Sir Robert Borden. "Security " in the French sense is no longer in the picture, except to the extent that the British Government has agreed to accept the Treaty for Financial Assistance and the anwnd- ments to the Covenant so as to harmonize it with the Pact of Paris, but on one fundamental condition precedent, namely, that disarmament should cease to be a mere phrase and enter the realm of reality. This stand by the British Government, and still more the way in which it has been received, means one thing above all -- the eclipse of the Quai d'Orsay. Those who have read any of the Foreign Office documents on the years before the War will have recognized the French mastery of the old diplomatic technique ; the great mistake of the French since the War has been to continue that technique in a world which has outgrown it. For years now the policy of the Quai d'Orsay has been recognized—outside France —as short-sighted, its tricks and devices puerile and transparent ; yet somehow. in Geneva. until this year the idea of French leadership imp ,sed
and although not a single European State was happy about the plan of ,Federal Union conceived in Paris, there seemed every prospect that French prestige would carry the day. Mr. Henderson stood firm, as we know, and whatever form future collaboration on specific European problems may take, its sting has been drawn, and the League's pre-eminence has been asserted. As usual, it is the business of the British Government to pull the chestnuts out of the fire. We have our reward, however, in the notable appreciation by all those who have the best interests of the League at heart.
One feels sorry for M. Briand. He is bound hand and foot by a Government out to please the most narrow and Ration- alist opinion of the country ; he cannot free himself from the shackles of the Quai d'Orsay, and yet, tired and disappointed, he must go on because there is no one else capable of keeping up the fiction of French prestige and pacific aspiration. His speech this year was redeemed by one fine passage, which I see has been noted with appreciation by Herr Emil Ludwig, writing in the Journal de Geneve. M. Briand was true to himself and his great work when he cried out : "Toni que je serai oh je suis, it n'y aura pas de guerre." The phrase is immortal, as Herr Ludwig says, and it shows how far we have travelled since the days of the old diplomacy when war wks simply the ace of trumps in the diplomatic game.
M. Briand and Herr Curtius have had private conversations together, and on Friday, September 12th, the Council was able to register the liquidation of the Saar railway force, as de- manded by Germany and recommended by the Governing Commission of the Saar. Of the progress of Franco-Italian relations nothing is known, although naturally Signor Grandi's sudden return to Rome after the first meetings of the Council has produced a crop of rumours.
The general discussion in the Assembly finished on Tuesday. Elections for the new Council were to take place on the follow- ing day, and the results will be known before the Spectator goes to press. The work in the Commissions—the six fora in which the agenda of the Assembly is probed and thoroughly discussed—has begun, and is likely to be particularly exacting this year. In all probability the resolution adopted by the European States Members of the League at the dramatic meeting on Monday, September 8th, will be referred to the Sixth Commission (Political), which will also be concerned with a German resolution with regard to Minorities. Here and in the Third Commission (Disarmament) we are likely to see some fun, and the desarroi of supporters of the French official policy is well indicated by the suggestion of M. Auguste Gauvain in the Journal des Debals that M. Briand himself should act for France in the Third Commission. (It is cus- tomary for the principal delegates to return home when the Commissions begin and leave the detailed work to their subordinates and advisers.) Then there is the very important question of the future of the Secretariat, the clash of principle between the Majority Report of the Committee of Thirteen and the case for national and short-term appointments pre- sented by Italy and sure of a -certain amount of support— that will make the debates of the Fourth Commission this year memorable.
Piquant faits divers this year are :—(1) The journey by the British Delegation in their own (Daimler) cars from Boulogne —for reasons of economy ; (2) the reception of the journalists of all the countries on Tuesday, September 9th, by Mr. Henderson and Mr. Dalton clad in their tennis flannels, Mr. Henderson's genial and informal manner winning general approval ; (3) the appointment of a woman, Countess Apponyi (Hungary) for the first time as President of one of the Assembly Commissions ; and (4) the evident impression made by the progress of the League on Sir Robert Borden and the two Prime Ministers from the Dominions, especially General Herzog. This year the Delegations include six Prime Ministers and twenty-two Ministers of Foreign Affairs, five former Prime Ministers, and eleven former Foreign Ministers. The weather is fair to middling, not such as to invite sun-bathing. --I am, Sir, &e.,
YOUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT IN GENEVA.
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