GREAT BRITAIN AND THE " ZOLLVEREIN" [To the Editor of
the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The proposed Austro-German Customs Union gives Great Britain a providential opportunity, by stoutly countering France's attitude, to regain her erstwhile ascendancy. I am confident that Great Britain would obtain the moral backing of America ; and, what is more, the support of a world-wide public opinion.
Let us cease to delude ourselves, and face the realities of the situation squarely. The inexorable logic of events must be opposed by a vigorous application of the logic of reason. In emergencies sentiment must be laid aside. But the Treaties ? Bury the Treaties ! We want to live. The demands of life are above the idiosyncrasies of Treaties.
There is still time for Great Britain to take a resolute line.
The League is in a precarious state. It is bound to crumble to pieces unless something decisive is done, and done quickly. The League's demise is inevitable in the stuffy inane atmo- sphere in which it is enveloped. First Germany will drop away, to be followed by Austria, Italy and Hungary, topped by Great Britain's gradually waning interest.
France knows how Germany must feel ever since 1919, for she remembers how she felt after 1871 1 But is the world to be kept low because France is determined to keep Germany low ? Surely there must be a way to bring about a true inward appeasement. • But not as long as France is at the helm, with her constant feeling of insecurity, with her womanish instinctive craving for protection. France's state of nerves unfits her to take a long-range view and to steer a steady course which must be changed before the nations' spirits, and with it trade and industry, will again revive.—I am,
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