TOPICS OF 'THE DAY
THE GENEVA ACCIDENT
TTIE Geneva debate in the House of Commons ended satisfactOrily. In the first plaCe, it showed, what neither we nor any appreciable part of the population . doubted for a moment, that Sir Austen Chamberlain, thOngh hencted with a certain innocence, want of caution, and 'over-trustfulness of his fellow-diplomatists, never did anything which was not worthy of his own and the . natiOn?s honour. Want of suspiciouSness. and unwilling-. neSk to belieVC" evil of others were his principal fatilts. The next SatiSfactory thing is that -the German GoVern-; ment 'have not been antagonized by -What happened--.-. a iery good sign indeed, for they had a perfect right to be . , annoyed. Instead of complaining of their' treatment; they have made it clear that they do not attribute the apparent breach of the spirit of the Locarno Agreement to any Want of good on the Part of the signatories: They'reeognize that the accident at Geneva was the result; not of 'fraud, but 'of muddle.- • Further 'it has been 'Proved that Sir Austen',4 instruc- tions were accord with the best firitish-opinion; and that our GovernMent never wanted anything but a fair deal, and a gene-161 display of the gx:s3d. faith which theii iheinselVes held towards GCrrinany.. LaSt, and most important of all, it is quite clear that the League- hasriotsuffered the material" damage which was greatly feared. Indeed,strange.as it may seem; it is quite pOiSible that the prestige of the League may aetnally,be increased.- Aii analogy May serve to explain what we mean. Smith, in Possession of a new car, of which he is. proud yet a little anxious about, as it has been " crabbed " by many of his acquaintances, his been run into.by another car:in " astonishing circumstances." 'It was a very'nasty aceident and his first impulse is to-think that his new car has been ruined. HOweVer, the car when examined is found to haVe suffered no serious damage. It stood the shock splendidly, and can still keen the road. Later On; say in the autumn, an overhaul will put it perfectly right. The net result is that Smith has gained anew confidence in his car. The question of the immediate cause of the accident remains, however.' What inspired the other man ? Why did he engage in what appeared to be a ViifuI effort rundown Smith's car? Although the net result of the accident has not been calamitous, we must not forget, to continue our metaphor, that we have had a shock that was nearly a disaster, and that it behoves us to take precautions for the future. We cannot let the matter rest where it is, or be content with the 'assurance that Brazil " did it for the best." Of course. she did—Lfrom her own point of view, which we may assume to have been sincere. What we want to know is, Why did she do it ? That is the test. As yet heil answer is factitious. The opportunity for gaining a seat on the Council was teriipting enough. We need not seek for Outside instigation. • Tint even' while' we disdain any attempt to -pry into motives, it must be admitted that she fished in troubled waters. Next, it-. is. obVious that . she could not' have -done so if the waters had not been troubled. Therefore we Must ask how the waters became troubled. Some people may say that this' is too 'dangerous an enquiry. We do not believe it. We believe that the great danger in all human --relations; and 'especially in the relations between the Great Powers, 'comes when you refrain from • turning up the lights or looking into dark corners and closed cup- boards. We must know what' we are doing. We must not assume too easily that everybody is going to-act with' disinterested good faith and withoUt jealousy or-spite or selfishness or—perhaps worst of all—panic. In our opinion what has troubled the waters as much is anything else is' the pretence of co-partnership and general sympathy with France which our Government. have maintained, ever since we in fact broke with her in regard to her appallingly dangerous and Machiavellian policy in the Ruhr and the Rhineland. The BritishGovern- ment all through -the Poineare dispensation were for treat- ing Germany fairly and generously. As she was bound to play a great part in the future of Europe they held- that it was good' politics, as well as good morality, to help her to get up and not to make futile endeavours to keep her in a condition of degradation and misery. France. obviously thought otherwise she did. not desist from baiting.".Gerinany till the use of African troops and the employment of agents provocateursin the shape of bogus revolutionaries and soldiers of fortune masquerading as super-Teutonic patriots, and .the expenditure of nuge sums of money, proved to be strengthening and uniting instead of breaking. up.Germany. . British public opinion and the real feeling of our Government was one of horror at what. was happening. • Yet so possessed was the British Government with the necessity. of " keeping in " with France at all points that they indulged themselves in the weakness of trying to carry- out a double policy. France was told in effect that we thought she was playing a dangerous and even a wicked-game,- but that we all the same w wished her God- speed.- Later on we were told on the authority of the Government's legal advisers that her occupation of the Ruhr Valley was a breach of the Treaty of Versailles, but at the- time we took care not to draw the necessary- conclusions and triedto shelter ourselves behind a kind of lachrymose inaction. -We forgot, in fact, those two whole-, somesayings in regard to conduct : " He that biddeth him God-speed ispartaker-of his evil deeds," and " Nonfaisance- is often as great a crime as. malfaisance." You cannot- escape eseape responsibilities-by burying -your head in the sand;.The moral of all this is plain. If we want to avoid, as most certainly -we do, the creation of more 'troubled waters at -Geneva. for new fishermen to exploit, we must regain a position of independence. We shall do this, of course, not in order to dictate-to the rest of the Powers, or in order to he the arbiters of Europe, but only in order to prevent fresh misunderstandings. We must give- up doing things which we do 'not- really want to do and refusing to do things which .we know we ought to do, because it is supposed -that it will hurt the 'feelings of France. We gained nothing for ourselves, for France, or for the welfare of the world by our lover-like habit of asking to be deceived once more. To show that our policy of ingratiating ourselves with France has been a failure, we have only to remember how France acted when we had our trouble with Turkey in 1922. The British Dominions look on from-afar. Somewhat like the United States they cannot realise so directly and vitally their interest in these matters which will rise and fall with the prestige of the- League.- - • In view of what has happened at Geneva can we wonder, that the American Government is becoming more and- more perturbed about the tendencies of European policy; and therefore more and more anxious to avoid European: complications ? The attitude, of the ITnited States is exactly described in a stanza from in Mentoriant,_ iti which we have only altered one word :— " But when the World is full of din; And Doubt beside the portal waits, They can but listen at the gates And hear the household jar within!!
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