Evening Star Newspaper, June 28, 1931, Page 25

Part 2—10 Pages WASHINGTON, D. C, EDITORIAL SECTION he Sunday Star. FRANCE USUALLY SHATTERS AMERICA’S PLANS ABROAD Government Confro Debt Program Treaty Negotiations. BY FRANK H. SIMONDS. HAT was the explanation of the sudden and unexpected cxplosion of French press and public opinion over the Hoover proposal to save Ger- many from a political and economic collapse, which was unmistakably im- nding? No question has been more frequently asked in the past week and noneshas been more baffling to the great mass of American people. Moreover, irritation over the pres- ent incident has been accentuated by Tesentment surviving from other oc- casions when France has disclosed a similar attitude. time the United States has attembted to accomplish something _internationally in the post-war period. it has sooner or later come into sharp collision with France, with disastrous effects for the American_program. Thus at the Washington Naval Con- | ference it was the course of the French which prevented a general limitations agreement and confined the results to the battleship detail. And, exactly in the same fashion, it was a similar French attitude which rendered im- possible any five-power treaty at Lon- don two years ago and restricted the harvest of this conference to a three- power treaty with the famous escalator clause. Now, for a third time, French opposition seems destined to limit if not to block another American under- taking. French Resentment Traced. When one seeks to explain this Prench attitude it is clear upon the smallest examination that it arises from two circumstances, the first relatively trivial, the second much more vital. ‘Thus the manner in which our Govern- ment has set out upon its several un- dertakings has invariably produced sharp resentment in France, while the thing we have set out to do has been judged unfavorable to French interests. As to the manner; before the Wash- ington Conference there had been a long series of exchanges between Wash- ington and London. Our own Govern- ment was unconcerned about French naval strength and for it, the major question was to bring about an adjust- ment of British and American naval strength on the basis of parity. There ‘was no deliberate intention to ignore the rights or offend the pride of France. Nevertheless, the French came to Washington with a sense of attending an Anglo-Saxon party and, once ar- rived, they were permitted to cool their heels in the New Willard Hotel while the Anglo-American-Japanese gates discussed and formulated a proj- cct of agreement. The French dele- gates resented this treatment bitterly, Viviani went home in a huff. As for Sarraut, whc remained, to him the treaty when framed seemed no more than a document drafted without re- gard to France and submitted for the French to sign on the dotted line. Hughes Causes Upheaval. Accordingly, he refused to sign and blocked the game. Appalled by this development, Mr. Hughes appealed to Paris over the head of Sarraut. In doing this, he saved the battleship detall of the Washington proposals, but he produced the fall of Briand, who at Cannes a few weeks later was suddenly greeted with the news of a political upheaval in the French Parlia- ment, largely the result of the Wash- Ir‘?ton affair, and was obliged to re- sign. In the case of the London Confer- ence, the process was identical. Wash- ington and London had long discus- sions. Then Ramsay MacDonald made his dramatic excursion to the Rapidan and beside that stream the President of the United States and the prime minister of England came to an agree- ment, which was later produced at Lon- don under circumstances which were unfortunate. Thus, once more, the French, still smarting over the Wash- ington Conference, were condemned to attend a new international gathering in the role of a second class power. French Apparently Ignored. Finally, in the most recent affair, while Secretary Mellon has been in London and there have been a long series of obvious discussions not alone between the American and British gov- ernments, but between the bankers of the two countries and while, in addi- tlon, the same exchanges have taken place between Washington and Berlin, culminating in the direct request of Mr. Hoover to Marshal Hindenburg for a statement of the German situation, neither unofficially or officially has there been any similar’ solicitude to discover French views or enlist French participation. Of course, the explanation now, as in the past, is not discoverable in any pur- Eose to affect or ignore France. After aving rather tardily waked up to the actual situation in Germany, the ad- ministration, which had been steadily minimizing the danger, saw the situa- tion for what it was and acted swiftly. Nevertheless, the fact was that the French government read the news of an American official action vitally affecting the interests of France in the news- papers and was already familiar with the fact that, while Britain and Ger- many had been consulted, France had been ignored. Prestige Is Important, Now, however absurd and trivial such | considerations may appear in Ameri- can eyes, they are of utmost importance alike in Prench and European. On the other side of the Atlantic the question of prestige is always important. More- over, when the administration actually, although without any deliberate intent, ignored France, the French position in Europe was compromised and French influence reduced. The political ad- ministration at home, already in a critical situation, was compromised, &ince it was held responsible for main- taining the dignity of the country abroad and the position in Europe of the French nation was similarly com- | promised. One can say quite definitely then, in the light of three significant epi- sodes, that until our Executive and State Departments are willing to con- sider French feelings in the process of | gorwarding their own purposes, whether of disarmament or of ‘economic re- hablilitation, they will have to reckon with French opposition. And what is similarly unmistakable is that this opposition can be fatal to all these projects, for the position of France today is such that she can block all international co-operation or agreement. British Favoritism Seen. ‘But the question of manners is far less important than that of matter. In all our significant operations in in- ternational affairs since the Peace Conference ‘we have seemed in French eyes to be animated by an anti-French purpose. Absurd as this view is in reality, what is true is that invariably our proposals have seemed unfavorable and even unfriendly in French eyes. Thus at the Washington Conference, st & time when in Europe Prance and Great Britain were engaged in a violent In fact, one can MY," fleet or that of the British, they asked that, almost without exception, every|no restrictions for either, but they dele- | nts Same Attitude in| as in Naval and duel, our close association with ‘the British seemed to be an evidence that | we were siding with the British and our acceptance of British views as to French naval strength, notably in the matter of the submarine, seemed a clear proof that we desired to rob France of her one effective weapon against British sea power. At London, our insistence upon a five-power agreement coincided with a sharp Franco-Italian naval dispute over the question of parity, and the French |saw in our demand for an agreement |& clear purpose to compel them to bend their interests to ours. They | were not interested in the size of our |flatly refused to limit their own | | strength, save as they were guaranteed their existing superiority in the Medi- terranean. Refuse to Cut Arms. Moreover, in general, all American activities in the direction of disarma- ment have inevitably _encountered French interests and opinion. Since France is the most completely armed state in Europe, all disarmament pro)- ects must envisage the reduction of her military strength and thus the diminution of her security—that is at least in French eyes. And the French are unwilling to make any reduction save as we are prepared to give promise | of guarantees in case reduction leads | to_new peril. ‘When, morcover, we press for reduc- | tion, when the Hoover administration | plainly uses all its influence to insure |a conference at Geneva, thus support- | | ing the British, the French see in this |action a readiness to subordinate | French security alike to American and | British theories—for the French say this quite openly and brutally—to pro- vide Mr. Hoover with campaign mate- rial in the approaching presidential election at the cost of French safety. German Concern Shared. | _ Similarly in the present case of | Germany, while America and Rr'tain have been looking upon the financial situation in Germany with utmost con- cern, the French have been regarding with equal interest the political de- velopments. Thus while on the one hand Germany has been sinking more and more deeply in the financial morass, she has been with ever-in- creasing insistence proclaiming nation- alistic doctrines. With equal vehem- ence, she has been demanding revision of the reparations figures and of her Eastern frontiers. These latter demands involve the na- tional existince of France’s Slav allies, Poland and Czechoslovakia and in- directly the security of France itself. The French view 1is, therefore, that financial help to Germany should be conditioned upon the renunciation by Germany of - political projects inimic: to the interests and fatal to the terri- torial unity of her neighbors. Otherwise the French see quite clear- ly that, in the end, if Germany is saved by international co-operation, she may. once .she has recovered her pre-war strength, employ this strength to ends which would be disastrous for France and her allles. The French are not opposed to the restoration of German finances or economic life, they are sim- ply insistent that the condition of this restoration shall- be the abandonment of purposes dangerous to other nations, beginning with France. Hoover’s Action Surprises. When President Hoover suddenly and dramatically intervened on behalf of Germany, he swept away all the | French calculation of imposing upon Germany conditicns in advance of be- | stowing benefits. He, in effect, took | | the position that the only thing of im- | | portance was the rescue of Germany |and that it was the duty of France, | automatically and without previous dis- cussion, not merely to assent to the S SUNDAY MORNING, JUNE -28, 1931, Can Five Year Plan Succeed? “ Russia Capable of Erecting Its Machine, but Will It Be Able to Continue to Operate It? FF MACHINERY INVADES THE BY ANDRE SIEGFRIED. EFORE presenting my thoughts on the Pive-Year Plan, as one who knows of it only through week's article in this newspaper | to recall certain attributes of the Rus- sian character which, in my opinion, will without doubt be more or less per- | manent ones. These should not be lost sight of in considering Stalin's gigantic lan. 5 That Russia was the least prepared of all countries to serve as the scene of a Marxian revolution is admitted by the Bolshevists themselves. Aim Collectivism. In the Marxian system the last step in the evolution of capitalism would eventually lead to collectivism. 1In 1917, of all the countries in the world, Russia was the least developed along indus- trial lines. She was weakened and dis- organized by war. It would seem that a collectivist revolution would be a paradox in a country such as this. where nine-tenths of the inhabitants are peasants. ‘The fact of the matter is that the revolution was, above all. a revolution of the peasantry, which transferred others, I thought it wise in last | property to the moujiks. In the begin- ning the industrial revolution was simi- lar, in that it meant the taking over of | the factories by the workers. Everywhere Soviets were formed spon- | taneously, and even this seemed to be | an expression of old Russia. Then, sub- sequently, the war-time Communism im- | posed by the militants failed, and in 1921 it was necessary to form the N. E. P.—a concession to the primitive in- stinct for self-preservation which is de- manded of every sfate. But a Marxian country—or at least a country that wishes to be so considered —can adapt itself to neither a peas- antry nor an industrial economy which acknowledges (as does the N. E. P.) in- dividual property as well as individual initiative for profit. Needed Working Class. A reorganization was necessary, and, above all, there was the need of a po erful working class to back the new regime. It is only since 1925 the orthodox reaction against the N. E. P. began. The Five-Year Plan seems to be the logical outcome of this reaction. ‘O,r what does the Pive-Year Plan con- | sist? parently that RUSSIAN WHEAT FIELD—ONE OF THE LARGEST AND MOST SUCCESSFUL create out of whole cloth a formidable industrial machine which will triple production and double the national rev- enue. It seems, therefore, to be a ques- tion of a massive and systematic indus- trialization of Russia which will make her a manufacturing power and enable her to compete successfully with the capitalistic nations in this field. | “According to the official data of the plan, workers will increase 1928 and 1933) from 2,600,000 to 15,- 250.000 in number; the production of coal will rise from 34,000,000 to 75,000,- 000 tons, iron from 5,700,000 tons.to 17,000,000, smelting ores from 3,330,000 tons to 10,000,000, and the number of tractors from a mere 1,000 to 150,000. Speed Surpasses Estimates. According to the reports of the Soviet government, confirmed by more than one investigation on the spot, the plan |1s being brought to realization with a speed that surpasses origirfal estimates. What should we think of all this? | modern and even super-American ap- pearance, this grandiose plan makes us | think in the last analysis of certain precedents out of Russia's past. | lossal project such as this one would We know that its purpose is to | have been to the liking of Peter the! (between | In the first place. under its ultra- | — | OF THE STATE FARMS. Great, who, without doubt, would have !xucceeded by very analogous means. | The conquerors of anclent Asia built cities in exactly the same way, and we often see traces of their ruins in India, China and elsewhere. Stalin, | who is a Georgian—that is, more Turk- {ish than Russlan—must, unconsciously | or otherwise, have absorbed an outlook which is not Occidental. Certainly no head of a Western state would ever have attempted, much less conceived, |the like of this enterprise. We cannot deny its hugeness. Religious Fanaticism. But we can discuss ifs chances of success. The factors which are work- ing in its favor are, in the first place, the passionate, religious fanaticism of the organized militants who have sworn to bring their extraordinary program to a successful conclusion. As long as this enthusiasm lasts, this system will have an incontestably pow- erful motivation. To this may be added the advantage of being able to force passive laborers to work—Ilaborers who can be maneuvered as old Asia maneu- | vered her slav who work rather but who nevertheless do as they Then again, the revolution (Continued on Fourth Page.) |are Envoy From the New Spain » New Ambassador to Washington Is One of the Writing Intellectuals to Be Henored by New Regime. BY ANGEL FLORES, The Famous Author. PAIN has unbound her literary “Who's Who.” only to dusty specialists or ubiqui- tous readers flash now with newly acquired glamour. Grudgingly the | better citizens admit that writers “have | been given a break” for a change. I| say grudgingly because, in thess busy | project, but to agree to waive the pay- | ment of $100,000,000 during the ensuing | | year. “And here 1t is patent that the | manner of the doing of the thing and the thing done were equally obnoxious to French opinion. Patently Mr. Hoover believed that | time was the essential element and | once he had acted the public sentiment | | of the world would compel France to! submit. But it is always dangerous to reckon upon the effect of world opinion in France. That fact was amply demonstrated at the time of the occupation of the Ruhr, during both naval conferences and, indeed, in all post-war history. So far from being coerced by the agreement of the out- side world, the French people are to be made suspicious and obstinate. Moreover, while they can at times be persuaded, the smallest hint of coercion, even of the moral sort, arouses a re- sentment fatal to all international agreement. France Holds Power. ‘There is, moreover, one all-essential consideration in dealing with France today. For the present, she has the decisive vote; reparations cannot be changed, treaty restrictions modified, disarmament-projects advanced, save as she agrees. Her attitude may be dic- tated by egoistic, nationalistic or even militaristic sentiments—that is a matter of opinion—but her power in the prem- ises for the present is clear. That is why all the projects of naval disarma- ment and military limitation, in fact, all international undertakings begun without previous negotiation and ad- Jjustment with France, have ended in flasco. And that is the fact Washing- ton seems consistently to ignore. Always, as in the present case, after adopting a policy of major importance and announcing it to the world, the American administration discovers on the next day, not only that France is opposed, but that French opposition can be fatal. (Copyright, 1931. by McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) Portugal Hastens Fleet Renewal Plans | ROME.—After having one of its “bat- tleships” sunk by a mere field gun in the recent revolution in the Azores, the Portuguese government has speeded up plans for the renewal of its “fleet.” The otation. marks are necessitated by e fact that the Portuguese navy now finds its greatest strength in ships built in 1897 and in a few rusty submarines which are too antequated to leave Lis- bon Harbor. Italian shipbuilders, who are already constructing fighting craft for six different nations, wil Portugal out by building one 5,000-ton aircraft carrfer and two 2,000-ton de- British shipbuilders secured contracts for six destroyers totaling 7,600 tons. The 10 Franch firms comprising the “Unton de dix Chantiers Francais de Constructions, Navales,” as well as five Dutch firms, also bid for the job of refitting the Portuguese fleet, but were completely unsuccessful in securing any contracts. t|a Chesterfield for their comprehensive help little’| haj stroyers and two 750-ton submarines. | the years of practical schemes, poets, novel- | ists and belle-lettrists have come to! be synonyms for scarecrows. They seem to be direfully out of tune with the | trend of the times. And therefore | Spain’s idealistic distribution of diplo- | matic portfolios sounds like a glorious anachronism. | This is not the proper place to dis- cuss whether a gifted writer is earthly enough to make a ‘good ambassador. This is not the proper time to determine whether Washington Irving, a name in- extricably woven to legendary «Spain, was a wretched diplomat and a fine writer, or a wretched writer and a fine diplomat. Just as the words “prince,” “courtier” and “gentleman” had to await a Machiavelli, a Castiglione and definition, so the. ambiguous epithet “ambassador” will require an experi- enced elucidator to give it some kind of pristine signification. Intellectuals Not Devils. ‘The important element to be pres- ently clarified is this: The so-called “intellectuals” of republican Spain are pot unpleasantly mummified devils of the bookworm genus. The political machinery is so organized in Europe that even the writers take part not only in its working, but also, alas, in its wrecking. No gulf separates the mead- ows of belle-lettres from the less com- fortable flelds of Parliament. In fact, an extremely clever French philosopher, Julien Benda, has recently complained of the intrusion of writers in govern- mental policies. He accused them of treason, since, in the last analysis, they wera traitors to their art. So, in this sense, the Spanish “intel- lectuals” have been traitors—after many fast days they made up their minds to frighten away the political wolves, and they have at last succesded. Can one blame them for not wanting to remain in thelr reasty “towers of ivory” scan- ning verses while their country groaned under plundering hands? Through shrewdness, sympathetic understanding and clever manipulations they won the day. And their artistic treason has thus become a political triumph. If the rev- olution was bl 'ss—s0 much to their credit—it was because they fully real- ized the valué of red and white cor- puscles. Become. Ambassadors. Some of the major “int:llectuals” have packed and , bound for foreign climes. They are Spain’s new ambassadors, keenly aware of their country’s history, of their diplomatic role and of the populace’s distaste for writers. ‘The more malicious citizens gigglingly expect to see the Spanish diplomatic corps in' Greenwich Village accoutrement at the thoroughly starched receptions of the embassy. But I fear that nothing so picturesque will ever ppen. Naturally the English-speaking coun- tries hi ocused their attention on new h ambassadors to Wash- ington aud the Court of St. James— Salvador del Madariaga and Ramon Perez de Ayala. Mada: ’s name has been broadcast 8o frequently that one is almost tempted to say that Madariaga is just Mada- |en riaga. And yet this man is so utterly complicated, so strong an international compound, that e almost escapes defi~ ' : | Names familiar | SALVADOR DE MADARIAGA, AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES. nition and classification. He always re- minds me of a fourteenth-century arch- fest. I sup) this is due to his bald ead and sharp nose—and yet the baldness-noseyness concomitants fail by themselves to produce the ecclesiastical aroma, chemical or ensemble, which I have in mind. Hat Characteristic. It must be the hat, that episcopal headgear of irresistibly upturned brim and helmety casque. I have often won- dered where buys his hats: ‘The unforgettable miterlike bonnet which impressed me so vividly was mis- takenly given to him-(I like to say) during one of those inevitable check rogm scrambles which take place every evening in all the great capitals of the world. ' It has been fortune to see Madariaga indoors, hat in Geneva, London and New York, but'I was never able to disassociate him from his origi- nal archpriestly hat. And yet, despite the deceptively defin- ing headgear, there is nothing ecclesi- -:{lul in Madariaga’s attitude toward life. He is just a competent mining eer who lectures on es the Monroe Doctrine, takes the League of Nations seriously, and writes onomatopoeic poems about.the sea. And . . all this is frreproachably done in three hr;flngu (mining excepted), for Ma- dariaga is a philosophical phenomenon: he speaks and writes with equal ease and elegance English, French and Spanish. Educated in France. In fact, he is Spanish- by birth, PFrench by education and English by profession and choice. Bem in Spain 45 years ago, he studied mathematics in a Prench school (the College Chap- tal), and later graduated from the Ecole des Mines, After a few years’ practice in Spain, disgusted by his countrymen’s apathy and “tomorfowing” attitude, he moved from the mines to the press. The newspaper produced no ores, but at least offered life in the raw. Madariaga felt elated, glad to have exchanged his mole profession for more Protean hnflu’anpu. c:fl m’g\ut ‘when he was becoming inured journ: il cave of winds he was asked to sit down on the lofty, extremely comfortable Al- fonso XIII chair of Spanish literature at Oxford. He accepted, and for years he has endeavoredl to show intellectual England the number of karats in the so-called Spanish Golden Age. It was perhaps the only preclous instance in which the mining engineer collaborated with the artist in him. Since that time Madariaga has be- come a prominent citizen of the world. Cassou has compared him to Andre Maurois. But despite the obvious simi- larities in style and technique—Maurois would have liked to sign “The Sacred Giraffe”—still there is something more dynamic, something more profoundly human, in Madariaga. His work as di- rector of the disarmament section of the League of Nations and his constant polemics and debates show him almost as a new Messiah of world peace—a Messiah _divorced of all pontifical non- sense. For instance, his essay, “Eng- lishmen, Franchmen, Spaniards,” has been unanimously acclaimed as a very significant contribution to comparative psychology. Prance has honored it with the Prix de I'Europe Nouvelle, and Spain and Great Britain have cheered with delight. Worships No Idols. Notwithstanding, Madariaga has burnt incense to no idols. His analysis of national characteristics is charged with caustic remarks rather than silly en- comiums. His experiments in ethno- psychology have permitted him to vis- ualize Spain wholly and dispassionately. Both his “Genius of Spain” and his recent more exhaustive “Spain” are thorough searchings into the dark maze of an oversentimentalized tradition. His “Spain” deals with anthropology, cleri- calism and the agrarian question, with industry, militarism and commerce, and, fact, with the entire ethos and mec] of a modern nation. The more romantic readers will find here no mantillaed senoritas strutting about un- der a shower of castanets and carambas. Formed and nourished by three rich traditions, trilingual Madariaga will make an exceptionally good ambassador. He seems' to understand well the psy- chology of the Anglo-Saxon peoples— his little masterpiece, “The Sacred Giraffe,” is a thoroughly English book, +| the breviary of a disciple of Jonathan Swift. And, besides, his profound faith in world peace and world understanding is a valuable indorsement, almost an essential requisite, in an age of taut sentiments, unctuous smiles and seeth- ing rancor. Wife From United States. The new Spanish Ambassador to the Court of St. James has a great deal in common with Madariaga. He also is a globe trotter, masters several languages and has an Anglo-Saxon wife—Madari- aga’s came from England, Perez de Ayala’s from the United States. But beyond these superficial resemblances one finds in both men a similar sense of humor, a similar intellectual adroitness and a similar intellectual approach to social and political problems. Perez de Ayala was born 51 ly against Jesuit in his autoblographical novel, “A. M. D. G.” The strictness of the J ’ hat theoughout hs maore seHious wonks lou more lous and even in his articles, one can sense his instinctive' hatred for any kind of compulsion and formal- 168> semse o 1e, the capricious evoli- ic” sense e, evolu- tion of intellectual ideals. His attitude is , SS::: l.lpet:l".ve td" Hispanie civilisation of that to speak of the Hellenic sentiment in a Perez de Ayala sounds almost para- doxical, even nonsensical. It Madariaga has a distinguished bat. 4 ] S pecial Articles UNDERSTANDING SOURCE OE TRUE PATRIOTISM British Statesman Sceres Narrow Nation- alism as Breeder of Mistrust of All That Is Foreign. BY VISCOUNT CECIL 0‘? CHELWOOD TRANGER" or “foreigner” means [ “enemy” in many primitive lan- guages. It has the same sig- nificance still in the minds of many, if not most, men and women today. To the Frenchman the foreigner is still the barbarian until the contrary is proved. M. Grasset admits as much in his candid reply to Herr Sieburg’s brilliant essay, “Dieu est il Francais?” ‘The more typical the Englishman, the more intolerant he is of those “lesser breeds without the law” of whom Kip- ling, with the borrowed self-righteous- ness of the chosen people, s0 insolently sang. Of the Middle West American’s contempt for the picturesque, ridiculous Europe, of which he knows nothing ex- cept that it owes his country good money, there are many classical ex- amples. “‘Whatever we do,” concludes Judge Bausman in his “Facing Europe” “we | are cursed. What is Jeft to us but to arm ourselves against people unreason- able and ungrateful?” Perhaps the most extreme case of the thought of a whole people being organ- ized to regard the foreigner as an ag- | gressive enemy is the educational sys- tem of Soviet Russia. One could mul- tiply instances of such international misunderstandings—even of deliberate and organized misunderstanding—almost indefinitely. | Here is the greatest obstacle to peace. | For if it Is true of affairs of the heart that tout comprendre c'est tout pardonner, | it is almost equally true of the dealings | of nations with one another. By na- tions T mean the ordinary men and women who go to make up that power called public opinion, which every gov- | ernment, whether parliamentary or dic- tatorial, must ultimately obey. If they could only learn the mental discipline of trying to put themselves in the place | of the foreigners upon whom their news- | papers and their politicians ask them to pass judgment, that judgment would rarely be an unfavorable one. Is it too much to say that on: already sees the beginnings of this mutual compre- hension? Improvement in Few Months. ‘There has been within the last few months a quite extraordinary improve- ment in the international situation. The end of 1930 saw an irritable na- tionalism very rampant and very vocal. Franco-Italian relations were ill-tem- pered; German arrogance at the Draft Disarmament Convention and exasper- ation with the conduct of the Polish elections caused much wild talk about Germany's leaving the League. The prospects of the Disarmament Confer- ence were black, There was grave un- rest in Indis. | ‘The forces which caused these con- flicts or gave rise to these forebodings are still with us. but common sense seems to be winning the victory. The just and wise action of the 's Council greatly eased German- Polish relations. The naval which I am proud to think ministers of my own country helped to negotiate in Paris and Rome, has not only allayed the mad but dangerous prophecies of conflict between France and Italy, it has completed the task of ending com- petition in naval shipbuilding between all the great powers of the sea. ‘This is of augury for the suc- cess of the Disarmament Conference; 50, too, is the report of the budgetary experts, which has proved that it really is practicable to restrict and conse- quently cut down armaments by limi- tation of national military expenditure. The cause of arbitration has been ad. vanced by the final acceptance in both the British and French Parliaments of the general act. And the agreement reached between the Viceroy of India and Mr. Gandhi will be hailed as a triumph of reason by all who are con- scious of the immensity of the problem of reconciling the East to the West. Effort at Understanding. ‘Will this improvement last? Only, 1 believe, if the peoples resolutely deter- | mine to understand one another: that is, to make on a greater scale a sus- tained effort to appreciate the other man’s point of view, for it is that effort alone which in each one of the in- stances which I have cited above brought success to the patient negotia- tors and conciliators. ‘To the bulk of the people direct per- sonal acquaintanee with foreigners is denied, and it is precisely this ignorance of the stranger, this unimaginative lack of sympathy with other nations, that the Nationalist newspaper or dem- agogue trades upon. It is not the press and the politicians alone who encour- age this delusion; they find their work more than half done for them by the schools. There is not a single country where the state schools have not been used, as & matter of course, to incul- cate a sense of one's own nation's glory and of other natjons' inferlority. ‘The process is a very modern one. What the great nationalist Treitschke in Germany, Thiers in Prance, Macaulay in England, for in- stance—achieved among the intellec- tuals of their different countries the simplified history books instilled into the boys and girls of the primary and secondary schools. But now the tide has turned. At last a concerted attempt is being made to drive out this lying caricature of true patriotism from the school history books, and, what is better, to encourage chil- dren from the very beginnings of their civic and historical knowledge to look upon “international co-operation as the natural way of conducting world af- fairs.” If the League ion Upoh Intellectual Co-operation had done nothing else but induce the govern- ments, as they have done in most mem- ber states since 1926, to give this new orientation to national education, it would have justified its existence. League Foundation Facts. Millions of boys and girls in nearly every European country, in Japan, in the British dominions, are now learning the facts about the League's founda- tion, its' covenant and its activity as a matter of general knowledge. And it is impossible to learn such facts with- out relating them to principles. Were government edicts to stand alone in this matter they might perhaps fail. But there is ample evidence that wher- ever the teaching profession is organ- ized it is beginning to seize the oppor- tunity presented by the new official re- | quirements to 1instill into the younger generation a philosophy of national and international life more in accordance with conscience and reason. |, It is a slow process, this turning of | the vast machine of public education from an engine of hostility into an engine of peace. It is all important, but we cannot afford to wait. There is much that grown men and women can do to fight the disease of international misunderstanding. Every one can make a practice of doubting the truth of any statement accusing a foreign nation of deliberate dishonesty or hostilitv. That nation consists of nothing more than ordinary men, women and children, with their indi- vidual daily needs and difficulties, per- sonal friendships, struggle for life, amusements, interests; it is wildly im- probable that they are all combining in sinister conspiracy to attack or defraud neighboring peoples. Every voter can withhold his vote from any parliamentarian who can find no better argument for his policy than an appeal to fear or hatred of the for- eigner. Radio communication should help, with the opportunities which the wireless programs increasingly offer of listening to the music or evening amuse- ments of other nations and of learning their point of view. Books, too, already abound written by good citizens of the world—M. Andre Siegfried, for instance —about the life of countries other than their own. Extreme French Anxiety. In short, with modern facilities it is not difficult to begin to understand the mental background and the outlook of the foreigner. From a def point. of view it is surely mb: for the German or the Eng in his capacity as a good European to under- stand the extreme anxiety of the French for the integrity of their soil, twice ravaged by invasion in the lifetime of those now living. It is equally possible for the French- man, simply upon the basis of human self-respect, to understand the humiliation of defeat and the insti tive desire of a proud nation like the Germans to recover a position of moral equality. The Italian demand for “parity,” viewed from within and as & | manifestation of a nation's new-found consciousness of itself, i not unrea- sonable nor undeserving of sympathy. The Hungarian's undying attachment to a venerable crown, the Czech’s ner- vous mistrust of any revival of an old order which seems to menace the new national institutions—even my own countrymen’s disinclination to under- take Continental commitments, not from mere sloth but from a half-expressed | bellef that constant anticipations of war | may entrench the idea of war in the | mind—all these are convictions of in- | gtincts which have something to be said for them. No one of them is wholly true, none holds the whole secret of peace for the world, but all inclose some right, some natural desire, some ele- ment of social value in the vast com- munity of mankind which it is the duty of the statesmen to conciliate, adjust and co-ordinate for the common good. Is it hard for the ordinary citizen to believe this? Not so hard, surely, as to believe that this little globe is in- habited by utterly separate tribes, each a god to itself, each destined to arm and fight against the others, each menaced by the perpetual treacheries of foreign devils. For nationalism in the last re- sort means no more than that. (Copyright. 1931) Fourth Estate Rules French Deputies, Must Yield to It to Get Recognition» PARIS—Cries of “Give him the hook!” rose the other day in the Frerch Chamber of Deputies. It was during a tedious debate on a tedious question, and the speaker of the moment halted and coughed and repeated himself. ‘When he heard the cries he appealed to the Speaker, for the interrupters were in the press gallery. The upshot was that the halting speech by the coughing Deputy was not mentioned by a single newspaper in France. The reporters took their revenge. Apart from a score or so of repre- sentatives of the people who cannot be ignored by the press, the fame of legis- lators in France, as in many other countries, is in the hands of the men ated in the press gallery. Knowing , the reporters, especially of recent years, have developed the habit of com- menting audibly on the debates. Vaudeville Revives Hook. A Parisian vaudeville theater having revived the ancient custom of the ster hook from the for the | that as a his full name and title “Totor” is the Honorable Victor Le Guen, one of the Deputies from Brittany. Prior to a re- cent occasion he had been known only because of his fondness for hard cider and for his stentorian exelamations when he does not approve of a speech. Then he decided to deliver the first set oration of his career and his friends in ffl'u""“ gallery gave it the widest pub- y. Today all France knows “Totor” as the originator of the following orator- ical passages: “William 1II, gentlemen, used to say that Germany's future was on_the water. Well, gentlemen, I do not hesi- tate to say that the future of agricul- ture is not on land, or on the water, but under the water. (Roars of laugh- ter). Yes, gentlemen, under the water of the sea there lies untold agricultura! wealth. This wealth takes the form of seaweed, filled with fertilizing mineral salts lacking in the soil on the coasts of our granitic Brittany, be those coasts on the north, on the south or on the west. It is even probable that if Brit- tany had coasts to the east these coasts also would be found lacking.” Makes Second Attempt. ‘Two days after his “Totor” mad own.’ ient having brought forth a storm of ironical applause, “Todor” retorted: “What ar ning at ? t's the truth, st e & oning * statem on ord rule do not even glance at them befm"m hexvld.