TOPICS OF THE DAY.
IS EUROPE DEAD?
"Europe outwardly may look dead, in the sense that its old watchwords and formulas of International intercourse are dead, but the nations composing it don't give me that impression. Prance is working hard from end to end. Italy has given us a marvellous example of vitality quite lately. Germany is very much alive internally in her own characteristic way. The newly-created Slates, at any rate, struggle for life as if they believed in their future. No. Europe is very far from being a graveyard. One need not be very optimistic to see that. So it seems to me. But it may be the illusion of a solitary man. I do not know what may happen to-morrow, but I hope I shall be allowed to keep that illusion to the end of my life."
T T is thus that Mr. Joseph Conrad writes to me in a private letter. His words are so moving, and as the opinion of a man at once full of wisdom and insight are so important, that I have obtained Mr. Conrad's leave to use them as my text. I am in complete agreement with his conclusions.
Europe is not dead or dying. There is, of course, always the possibility of its committing suicide, but there is no likelihood of such a contingency. While the will to live exists there is no need for alarm. And the desire to live is intense. That is why there is so much unrest, so deep a sense of anxiety, so insistent a demand for remedies. Malaise and physical disturbance are not fatal signs. What the doctor dreads in a patient is lethargy, incapacity to react to treatment, indifference, absence of volition. It is only when the desire to live is extinct that one need give up hope. Not till I see the nations of the Continent sink into a dumb satisfaction or dissatisfaction shall I despair.
There are, however, much better grounds for believing in the continued vitality of Europe than mere negative proofs. If we look at Europe, nation by nation, there is abundant promise.
Take Italy first, partly because Italy is a State which Englishmen love ex animo, and partly because at this moment we have in our midst, and as our honoured guests, its King and Queen. Our welcome to the Italian Sovereign is double—as the representative of a House which took so great a part in the making of the Italian State, and as a ruler who is using all his strength and good will to help Italy at her entrance upon the third stage in her career. One has only to visit Italy to realize that she is not dying. Her people are full, not merely of hope, but of something even more important. They are full of confidence. This confidence has acted like a charm. Italy is showing us in the best and most impressive way the truth of the dictum that it is not on a material but on a moral basis that the greatness, yes, and also the wealth, of nations rests. It is on a people's energy, enterprise and belief in their capacity to win that they grow prosperous. A moral credit is as important as a commercial. Indeed they are in the last resort one and the same. In both cases "I believe" is the word of power.
If we turn to France the prospect is also hopeful. There are signs, and they grow stronger day by day, that the nation is giving up the evil and delirious dream of an Empire founded on a policy of Hate, Fear and Black Mercenaries, and the inevitable insecurity which such a policy must create. The speeches of M. Herriot- who in all probability will be the new Prime Minister— show that he realizes the folly and the impossibility of M. Poincare's aspirations. M. Herriot clearly wants to get security by pursuing a policy which will allow Germany to turn her attention to trade, commerce, and internal organization rather than one which forces Germany to concentrate her energies, as, alas ! she has lately been concentrating them, on hatred of France. If France will only lend her aid to the re-establishment of German prosperity, or at any rate will abandon her veto on Germany's recovery, she will get the reparation payment she desires, and also be on the way to obtaining the security which she desires even more than reparations. What France wants is to see a truly democratic system of government maintained in Germany. That is the best guarantee of peace. But that guarantee cannot be obtained if France continues to create German Nationalists, Militarists, and even Royalists, in spite of themselves. If once France shows the reasonableness which a large part of her statesmen are showing, we shall not only get the reparations problem settled, but also get a settlement of those inter-Allied Debts which are haunting Europe. Reparations will do little or no good to those who receive them, but those who are pledged to pay them are at present paralyzed, though, as we hold, without good cause, at the thought of dis- bursement. They are afraid of showing signs of pros- perity lest they should be asked to pay in full ! For ourselves, we believe that Britain call and will take a bold and generous line. Unquestionably the way for France to get us to do this is to be bold and generous in her own policy.
Germany, again, in spite of her Ministerial troubles, is distinctly on the up-grade. Large portions of her people are suffering, but there is no reason why what has happened in Austria should not happen in Germany. At the same time, there can be little doubt that the smaller nations of Europe are wisely entering upon safer paths. The result of all the talk of French alliances has taught them a lesson. Czecho-Slovakia, Jugo-Slavia, Hungary, Poland, and Rumania are beginning to realize that alliances with a militaristic France are not only dangerous in themselves, but might very easily be repudi- ated on a change of Ministry. It is true that Russia remains the great political enigma, but even here the omens are growing more favourable. If we can succeed in letting the tides of commerce once more flow and re-flow between Russia and Britain, we have little doubt that the result will be to help on the refounding of Europe.
Remember that Europe is at bottom in a thoroughly sound position for trade revival. There is no dearth of people in Europe. It is full of skilful, energetic workers, managers, and traders of all sorts. It is also full of well-equipped factories, and it has developed the scientific use of the various forms of power to a high degree of perfection. Europe has been under a spell which has paralyzed her, but the power of that spell is passing away, and when it has passed the wheels will begin to move again, the loose links in the chain of exchange will be quickly recoupled, and in a compara- tively short space of time men will have forgotten the perils and perplexities of the post-War epoch. Once again, these things can come about only by restoring confidence, and that confidence to be really effective must be universal, and not merely the monopoly of one or two countries. It is good that there should be confidence in Italy. It is good that there is such growing confidence here. But this is not enough. We must do all we can to help the growth of confidence elsewhere. We must act sternly and decisively to prevent anything which will destroy that growth. Those who break, or threaten to break, the peace of the world just now are enemies of the human race and deserve the fate of such enemies.
J. ST. LOE STRACHEY.
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