The European Entente Pact, as it is apparently to be
called, has now been adhered to by Germany, Spain and the Little Entente States. That has the advantage of extending it a good deal beyond its original limits, though the more numerous its adherents the more closely it will approximate to existing bodies and the less its raison d'etre will become. The Times explains its utility not very convincingly by recalling Sir John Simon's declara- tion that the discussions at Lausanne had been marked by a new spirit of candour and mutual assistance, and suggesting that one question suitable for discussion within the European Entente framework was Germany's demand for equality of status in armaments. But what is this new Lausanne spirit ? Did nothing of the kind exist at Locarno ? Or at Geneva in all the years that Briand and Stresemann and Chamberlain were working there together ? And where could Germany's I disarmament demand be more properly dealt with than at the Disarmament Conference ? Lausanne was , a notable diplomatic success, and it can well be left to stand for what it was. To evolve some new organiza- tion or understanding, however nebulous, out of it serves no useful purpose. Energies are better occupied in making the most of existing understandings than in superimposing new ones on them.
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