Evening Star Newspaper, November 8, 1931, Page 31

EDITORIAL SECTION he Sundwy St Part 2—8 Pages WASHINGTON, D. C, SUNDAY MORNING NOVEMBER 8, 1931. e OUTLOOK IS DARK FOR REAL RESULTS AT Doubts Raised After Laval’s Visit—United| States to Have P End of Year. BY CONSTANTINE BROWN. HE administration is proceeding with the preparation of the con- ference for general disarma- ment to be held at Geneva in February, 1932. ‘Most of the material necessary to the ‘American delegates and experts is prac- tically ready. Piles of documents and statistical data are being put into shape, and even the names of the delegates are tentatively mentioned. Lists are being drafted and submitted to the President. The State, Navy ani War departments, feverishly active, are ex- pected t> be ready for action before the end of the year. Yet in the minds of many who have been following the develop- ments of the last few weeks, and espe- clally since the visit of Premier Laval, there has been a certain amount of idoubt as to whether the conference would be held at all; or, if it must be theld, because it has been so widely ad- wvertised, what positive results can be ‘®nticipated. Before Mr. Laval had his conversa- fions with the President, during which he informed Mr. Hoover that France | tannot reduce her armaments more than €he has done unless she can count upon other nations to guarantee her security, | the world had been living in hopes. ‘These were the hopes of the man who is completely broke but has a rich uncle who at his death might leave him enough money to get him out of trouble. The disappointment is great ‘when he finds his name not even men- ticned in the will. 'The French government has been telling the League of Nations that France will not disarm unless she is given certain positive guarantees re- garding her security. Even the well intentioned M. Briand and the ardent pacifist, Paul Boncour, have been re- Peating this for years. In spite of this, most everybody in Europe and a certain number of people in the United States were thinking President Hoover would be able to_say or do something that might induce Pre- mier Laval to go back to France and tell his people that France can safely announce she is willing to reduce her armies. Nothing of the sort has hap- Ppened. Prospects Not Bright. ‘The President, in spite of what had ‘been rumored before the French pre- mier’s vieit, was not able to suggest even a mild consultative pact, and Mr. Laval was not able to hold out the slightest hope for France's disarma- men:. Of course, the French Premier as- sured the President of France's pacific intentions (which nobody doubted). He assured the President of France's will- ingness to support the United States and the League of Nations to make the general rmament conference a suc- cess, but he said unequivocally that i cannot France without a secur disband @ single battalion nor serap a single gunboat. ‘With France refusing to reduce her armaments, the prospects of the con- ference are not bright. The Germans and many other Euro- pean nations which have taken up en- thuslastically the idea of general disarm- ament maintain that France must re- duce her land, air and sea forces in order to honor the treaty of Versailles, of which she is a signatory and the Iblbremut protagonist of its inviola- ity. The treaty of Versailles provides clearly that when the nations which had been defeated in the World War mre completely disarmed the victorious nations will also reduce their arma- sments. An interallied commission of control was organized after the war to super- wise the disarmament of Germany, Aus- | tria, Hungary and Bulgaria. The com- mission was disbanded in 1926, when it reported that those countries had ful- filled their treaty cbligations, and left whatever control there was still to be exercised in the hands of the League of Nations. Twelve years have passed since the signature of the Versailles treaty and some five years since the withdrawal of the commission of military control. The Germans ‘say now that it is high time for the victorious natiors to reduce their armaments as it is provided in the peace treaty. The United States is not involved at all. The British are | more or less in the same position. ‘Their army is larger than ours, because of the troops Great Britain must main- tain in India and in the Near and Middle East. The Italians have a large army, but they argue that though they are as willing as the United States or Great Britain to make substantial reductions they are unable to do so as long as their neighbor, France, has a :Arge and powerful military and naval cree. Germany Accuses France. Poland and the smaller Southeastern ‘European states maintain comparatively important armed forces because France ‘wants them to. They have, however, a ®o0d alibi, in that they feel menaced by Ruscla, which is supposed to have a large and efficient military force. Germany, which is theoretically dis- ermed—it has only 100,000 regular troops, no military aviation, no heavy artillery, no tanks—accuses France of breaking the treaty of Versailles by maintaining the important military es- tablishment she has now. ‘The German Nationalists, who are the most vociferous on this subject, claim France's excuse that she must maintain_what she considers an_ade- | quate army unless she has a security | expert who told him during the Lon- ARMS PARLEY lans in Shape by tion, save Germany, whose army ex- | ceeds ours. | ‘The opinion of our leading statesmen | is that European disarmament must | follow and cannot precede the settle- ment of political problems with which America is concerned only indirectly: The principal ones are problems which exist between various nations of Europe, like those between France and Ger- | many, France and Italy, Germany and | ©! | Poland, Jugoslavia and Ttaly, etc. These | | problems have been describzd as “bilat- | | eral problems between a pair of na- tions.” | The views expressed by one of the spckesmen for the administration will | give a clear indication of the difficul- ties confronting the coming general | disarmament conference. “To give an idea cf what a tremen- | dous task lies in front of this confer- ence,” he said, “these nations in Europe are keeping up their armaments very largely on account of these unsolved problems, gnd until they are solved or progress has been made in solving them it is going to be uphill work getting down the armaments.” ‘The problems to which the spokes- man referred have not been solved, nor has any great ‘ess been made to- ward reac! a solution. Nor_are conditions in the Far East | more favorable. Recent events there | have tended to destroy what little con- fidence existed in the instruments of peace created since the Great War, as | well as mutual confidence between na- | tions. It will be an interesting spec- | tacle to observe the statesmen of the | world assembled in Geneva, there to| decry war and laud the peace machin- | ery they have created as a substitute | for it while one of those participating | is resorting to war as its instrument of | national policy to further its ambitions in the Far East. The possibility of | achieving any success under present . world conditions seems remote. Any further scaling down of our own armaments can have no effect in reach- ing a real general disarmament. Here again spokesman expressed very clearly the situation: “If we should wipe out our entire Army and sink our entire Navy—we have already maZe our Army so small that it is negligible in the eyes of Eu- 0] we should wipe it out alto- gether, would it make any difference in the questions between Germany and over the Polish Corrider, or tween France and Germany over tha question or other questions?" See New Arms Race. Some of the European diplomats go further than this. They see, if not an actual menace to the peace of the world in case of fallure of the Geneva conference, at least a renewed armament race. Their reasoning is based on the l’?l?l,t,a.ol the London Naval Conference o § That conference was summoned w €o _away with the Anglo- 'naval rivalry, which had been increasing ever since the failure of the Genéva_conference in 1927. Besides Japan, France and Italy were asked to join the London naval negotiations. There was a it rivalry between these two countries since the Wash- ington conference of 1922, but public opinion in both countries was not aware of thic. The meeting between the French and the Italians at the London conference was like the collision of two limited trains. Within a week after the opening of the conference public opin- lon in France and in Italy became aware of a situation it had never realized be- fore. The press began discussing the “pros” and cons” of the parity ques- tion, and public opinion, spurred by press reports and eloguent spesches of nationalist leaders, became inflamed. result was that the French and the Italians left London without an egreement. The former decided not to | let the Italians have as large a navy | as theirs; the latter determined to build | “ship for ship and gun for gun” with | the French. Mussolini was compelled to set asice all his plans for Italy's economic reconstruction and divert the mcney available for that purpose cn new naval constructions. The writer does not agree with the statement of an important foreign naval | it don Naval Conference: “Let's pray that after this there will be no more | disarmament conferences, because if | there are the next one will undoubtedly lead us into a war.” Another Side of Picture. The rank and file of the people are not warlike, and these conferences, if adequately handled, may bring home to the minds of individuals, if properly informed, the absurdity of excessive armaments, which in turn may lead to | wars. But there is another side of the | | picture if viewed from another stand- point. Some observers see greater prcgress | toward disarmament as a result of the seven-power conference in London this Summer than was achieved by the Lon- | con Natal Conference. Only through “mental” disarmament, they say. will real disarmament ever become an actuality. The good feeling | with which the economic conference in London was held, and with which the | different nations left that conference, | | resulted in the bilateral conferences | which occurred thereafter, namely, the | | conferences between ~Germany and | France, France and Italy, and Ger- many and Italy. During these bilateral | conferences the political problems were discussed under a friendly atmosphere. | Although no positive results can be | reported yet, there is no doubt that these meetings, Wwhere economies are discussed almost in the olitics and Italy’s Foreign Pilot | | x Dino Grandi, a Bearded Farmer’s Son of 36, Has Already Gained Renown in the Diplomatic World. BY C. PATRICK THOMPSON. USSOLINI, unlike Napoleon, has no_Talleyrand. other hand he Grandi. Grandi may possess the brm‘;n“m glflas aé}: supple mentality of a Talleyrand, bu he-tan be relied upon not to betray his | chief. Of the two great men, Mussolini | is undoubtedly the better served. A comparatively new phenomenon n the scene of European politics and | world diplomacy, this _olive-skinned, | black-bearded, sonorous-voiced farmer’s son, this soldier-orator-writer-organizer Who is now minister for foreign affairs in Mussolini's cabinet, and who is coming to America this month for a series of conferences with President A atemplating him, one s reminded emplating him, one s | r{cg:tynl};llng,\.g One :_S that Fascist | Italy is the land of young men. | (Grandi 1s only 36.) _The other is that | the Duce, gearing Italy to one-man control, maintaining a personal gov- | ernment without precedent since Napoleonic times, never has found it | easy to link the ministerial job to the right man—the essence of rightness in | this case being absolute devotion to the | Jeader combined with the brains and | character to handle & big job. | 1t is difficult for a ruler such as the formidable Duce to find men of first- Tate character and . ability whom he can trust also to carry out his wishes and designs implicitly and efficiently. | Yes-men are plentiful. Men of inde- | pendent character who are also able and ioyal are rare. Grandi is one of | those rare ones. Groomed for His Post. He is, in this youthful land of swift | careers and equally swift eclipses, the outstanding instance of the young man whom Mussolini has taken to his heart, groomed for a post, and who, so far from being spoiled by the process, has developed remarkably under it and | turned out a notable success. He was not one of the quadrumvirate who led the march on Rome. The | measure of the swiftness of his rise may be gauged somewhat by presenting him against the background of Fascist affairs only four years ago. He was an unknown quantity out- side the peninsula, and generally re- girded as on trial'in it, when T went down to Rome in the of o i inquire into the delicate question of | !u:‘,’c“:("’lgn'fll;::‘&fnir:c:léi!;l:- ;’x‘uff what would happen if and when | P P [t Mussolini passed from the _earthly | OUY Pressing to know whether it was scene. At that time there was a gen- | OF Was not & mfi t dnt lke mrig coun- eral idea—T believe it still persists— | Cll. those 20 hand-picked old-guard et eculate openly on this sub. | Fascists officlally referred to as “the foet 1t tantamount Lo high treason, I Supreme organ which co-ordinates and L e aoinewhat® surprised to | instigates all the activities of the re- find myself still in Rome after I had gime,” had already by secret ballot in- A e "the "object. of my vieit, | dicated four names of men from Whom I was even more surprised to find lead- | & Successor to the Duce would be Tng Fascists quite teady and indeed | chosen should the occasion arise. anxious to discuss this question and impress me with the fact that all this An Inquiry Omitted. had been thought out and prepared | Nor did I annoy my hosts by inquir- against. ng at that time what Marsha og- ®The Pascist regime was 0 solidly es- |lio. former chief of the general staf tablished now_ that there was no like- and regarded as head of an anti-Fascist 1thood of it collapsing should the linch- | royalist party, was likely to do. He had pin, unfortunately, be withdrawn. The | been removed from executive tontact Ring would simply consult the cabinet, | with the regular army by Mussolini and, on its recommendation, appoint |and elevated to a gilded advisory post a new premier. And after the neces- | (he has since been promoted go:ernor sary period of mourning, all would go | general of the African colonies and | Rocco, who sat in the ministry of Ju.vi"“ Italian Parliament in 1921. along as before. iseparated from Italy by the width of Soldiering With the Prince Always Contemptuous of Danger in France During the War, He Was a Hard Man to Keep Track Of. | ‘z,sct is nonsense: that the treaty of | same breath, are more likely to give | crsailles does not provide for such an | better results than the pure political | emergency, and that the League of Na- ticns, of which all the interested coun- tries in Europe are memwbers, must satisty the French desire for security The German Nationalists, who can talk a good ceal because, for the time being, they are not responsible for the government of Germany, have ma‘e veiled threats that unless France dis- arms the German people will regard the treaty of Versailles as void. They consider the treaty as binding for ail signatories, and if one of them does not comply with its provisions the others are free to ignore it, too. It is in this atmosphere that some 50 nations are going to meet early in Feb- ruary at Geneva. On the one side there will be a good deal of pressure on France to disarm. On the other side there will be a good deal of resistance, | based on the fact that nobody is in a | sufficiently strong position today to compel Prance to do something she does Dot want to do. Naturally, under these circumstances, | and technical conferences. Mussoiini;s Fan Mail Reveals Popularity | ROME, Italy—The world is full of | Muss:lini fans, many of whom insist upon expressing their esteem for him in fan letters. Sometimes they caITy it too |far One Engishman was 50 excited | about the recent row between Mussoling | and the Pope that he wrote the Duce a long message: —Drawn for The Sunday Star by 8. J. DINO GRANDI, ITALIAN MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS. Woolf. the Mediterranean). fell if you mentioned his name just then; end to have asked what the | chances were of a royalist-regular army attempt to_wrest power from the mid- dle-class Fascists on Mussolini's de- | mise weuld have been tactless, to say the least. | We understood one enother, and dur- ing the next few days I was presented to the most eligible candidates. They ranged from the young and ambitious | Botta: (Corporations) to Balbo, the ad- | venturous son of the revolution, and |from the middle-aged militia organi- zer, Bazan, with his pleasant smile and | hard eye, and Turati, the cold, shrewd | party secretary, to the astute and gen- | 1al Federzoni (who has been shifted to | the colonial office after the job of | minister_of the interior and guardian |of the Duce had given him nervous prostration), and the brainy _little I tice. ~Drawn for The Sunday Star by Joseph Simont. FOR PERHAPS A MINUTE HE STOOD AS THOUGH IN PRAYER. BY EDWIN T. WOODHALL, Former Personal Detective and Bodyguard to the Prince of Waler. T WAS the 10th of August, fif- teen years ago. The World War was two years old; for two vears end three months longer it Was | slender, beared man bent down and, with his head reverently uncovered, read the message. For perhaps a minute he stood as though in prayer; then he stepped back, replaced his hel- met and saluted. The younger man followed his example. 1 “Thank you for riddmg the Catholic 4 4 to run its course of death and Church of the germ of B-lshevism,” he | gostruction before an armistice silenced wTote “There may be those Who criti- | the guns and brought peace to & War- cize, but don't let it worry you. Just | torn world. femembar that Joan d'Arc .was also| Along a road thiough the recently criticized.” This is the first time on | captured sector of Pricourt, in Franc2, The slender, bearded figure was His Majesty King George V of England. ‘The clean-faced youth who had swen and pointed out the cross was his son, the Prince of Wales. It was one of those quiet occasions when the Man | nssigned as a result of my service in | “the ~ Special Branch” at = Scotland | Yard (that particular section of detec- | tive personnel upon which devolves the duty of guarding royalty), I was closely attached to the Prince of Wales for special duty during his active service days. I have seen him on innumerable oc- casions in all quarters and sections of the firing line and at any number of | places in the zone of th> armies. Such | visits cheered the “Tommies” and offi- | A frozen silence shines through the Monarch, m scene | cers, giving them proof that their | Dino Grandi was not then on the iist Duce had sprung him on the foreign | office the previous year. It was a sur- | the foreign office crowd did not like it. | Grandi was an outsider, and they would | However, by the beginning of 1930 Grandi_had moved up in the Fascist third on the list of eligible candidates, Bottal being second and Balbo first. tween Grandi and Balbo, with Grandi |a probable favorite among the mod- | Hard work, studied correctitude, | steady application, oratorical gifts, ners and quite a presence—these are | in the van of the assets which have | | nor an opportunist, nor an intriguer; | if he were any of these things he might [not have lasted, gone on and up. Further, his reputation in interna- He would have to be regarded with cyniclsm, instead of with interest and nents of statecraft and diplomacy be- | fore whom he has lately been appearing Not Hurried by Il Duce. Mussolini, having watched him and | not released for appearances on major international occasions until he had found his feet, and learned the ropes. The Duce trained him over small jumps |as the London naval ccnference and the recent league meeting at Geneva when lines with a proposal that all states go- ing to the disarmament conference in | struction programs and refrain from | Increasing the existing strength of their He comes from Mordano, a township in the neighborhood of | | ranker and subsequently as an officer | in an Alpine regiment (mountaineering | deccrated for valor on several occasions. After the war he was one of the d | soldiers who failed to find Italy a land fit for heroes, who were furious to see in Paris to get their full share of the loot cf war and something over, and hope for the future in the militant Fascist movexent launched by Musso- He was in the Bologna branch, and very active, His impressive physique |leader. "His cratory was exceecingly effective. But he was no fire-eater. days of Farinaccl, the extremist, and | revolutionary methods. Hence in the ! nat so well known as a score of other | Fascist leaders pathies. ‘He got elected a member of He | of eligibles. He was still too new. The prise appointment. " The diplomats and | have preferred an insider. hierarchy until he was regarded as Today the choice would seem to lie be- | erates. | quick and logical mind, attractive msn ! built him up. He is neither a careerist | have scintillated a while, but he would tional circles would not be what it is. | respect, by the old, experienced expo- |in the role of Italy’s spokesman. picked him, did not hurry him. He was undergone a thorough apprenticeship, | before putting him at the big ones such Italy took the initiative and the head- February should suspend their con- naval, military or air armaments. little | Bologna. He fought in the war as a | is his hobby). He was commended and | gruntled, angry and disillusioned ex- the old-gang liberal politicians Iailing who found vent for their feelings and | 1ini, the ex-socialist editor of Milan. and able brain made him a natural He was a moderate—and thpse were the i early stages of the revolution he was | “Besides, he was a man of Left sym- (Continued on Fourth Page) | service had at one time or another— the harrowing ordeal of a terrible shell barrage. With Gen. Wardrgp he took shelter in a house, with detonating crashes and ear-splitting explosions go- ing on for over half an hour. Luck of the game! Tt wasn't to be! Yet an| exploding shell is no respecter of per-| sons, so it is apparent that if risks were taken, the Prince took his with the rest. He saw war in its every| aspect. | | Poles. there are a good many people in this | ¢ountry and abrcad who wonder whetber it would rot be advisable to | let sleeping dogs lie. Little U. S. Cutting Possible. From the American point of view very Jittle scaling down of armaments seems | been mentionad in connecticn with the French mortyr. Judging from the fan mail received, Mussolini enjoys even more poruhmy in democratic countries—notably Eng- | lan. and America—than he dozs in un- | democratic lands. For the sake of those Americans who send letters to the Duce ble of achievement through the it is worth noting that he personally *fforts of the cisarmament conference. | seldom secs any fan m>i). He is so £a- The armed forces of the United States | tiated with praise in his own country pave been so reduced as not to consti- | that he has no appetite for compliments tute, even to a second or third rate | from “unknowns.” And fortunately, he or, & military menace, and are to- | has better things to occupy his atten- smallest of any first-class na- | ticn, z record that Fascism’s two-fisted apostle ceme a group of men in the unmmx | of officers of the English Army | slender, bearded man of 50 strode at |the head of the party. Beside h'm marched a clean-faced youth. Back a short distance from the road- | side was a small mound of clay; mark- |ed with a steel helmet and a simp wooden cross. Written in pencil on the cross was the brief epitzph: Known unto God.” 1t was the grave ne of His Majesty's the last restin; f an unknown Britich soiaters D 0 The youth drew the older man' tention’to the mound. Advancini the at- | gu that will live long in the memories of those who watched. ‘That was not the first visit of the| Prince of Wales to the battlefields of France, nor the last. It is not gonerally known that Edward Albert, barely turned 20 when the war started, saw a great deal of active service. In’ fact, there is every reason to belleve that he saw much more of the fighting than others in a l:ss exalted position, I can claim first-hand knowledge of this by virtue of one word: Duty. As a arding cetective, & member of the intelligence police, to which I had been a future King was anxious to bear his | share of the worries, troubles and dan- | gers of active service. | There were noi many s:ctors along the Allied line that he did not visit By that I do not mean riding up in a car and visiting the respective head- quarters, but going into the trenches and sceing things for himself. He has crawled over Ilnlonlnf‘ post—and has been sniped at upon his return journey. A man has been shot dead at his feet. At Laventie he went through the same experience that all men in the 200 yards to a| At the Guildhall in 1919, when he received the frecdom .of the city, tha| Prince made the following remark: 1 “The part I played in the war was, I think, an insignificant one, but from one point of view I shall never regret my period of service overseas. In those four years I mixed with men. In those four years I found my manhood.” The Prince’s known contempt for danger and the habit of “looking for trouble” was a source of constant anxiety to the officers responsible for FRENCH CAN’T PERSUADE POLES TO YIELD CORRIDOR Borah Has Right I dea About Winning German Good Will, But War Alone Can Change Boundaries. BY FRANK H. SIMONDS. HE repercussions of Senator Bo- rah’s bombshell which burst <aling the Laval visit in Wash- ington have served to direct American attention Tln to the most_considerable of the achievements of the 14 points at Paris. For the Polish Corridor, which has become the Alsace-Lorraine ¢f post-war Europe, was created solely through the influence of Woodrow Wilson and had been fore- cast in his famous formula for a peace of_understanding in Europe. During the past three years I have twice visited this disputed arza. First in 1926 I stayed in Danzig and was conducted by the representatives of the Free State, and later was the guest of the Prvssian governor of what rzmains of the od Prussian province of West Prussia, staying at his residence in Marienwerder. Last Winter, to balance this exploration under German auspices, I traveled the coiridor from Thorn to Gdynia with an officlal of the Polish foreign office. Before 1325 the region between the Netze and the sea on the west bank of the Vistula was Polish. In that year the Teutonic ordcr crossed the river, conquered the Polish province of Pome- relia and Danzig and established them- selves. They remained in control until 1466, when the province returned to Poland in accordance with the second treaty of Thorn. It remained Polish until the first per¢ition, in 1772. It re- turned to Poland by virtue of the treaty of Versailles. During the past 600 years, therefore, the Poles have possessed the corridor for something more than 300 years, the Prussians for something less. During all this time in this territory which constitutes the Polish province of Pome- relia the Slavs have always outnum- bered the Teutons, but the former have been divided into Poles and Kashubes. While the Germans insist upon a dis- tinction between the two tribes, the lin- guistic difference is slight, and in the pre-war elections Poles and ubes voted together and invariably carried the parliamentary districts which today constitute the narrowest portion of the Corridor. In the first Polish census of 1921 there were in Pcmerelia 760,000 Poles and Kashubes and 175,000 Germans. At the same time (hcte were in the Free State 350,000 Germans and 25,000 Since that time the Germans in Pomerelia have dwindled to less than 100,000 while the Poles have increased enormously. Thorn, the capital, had 40,000 Germans and 5,000 Poles before the war; it has now 45,000 Poles an 4,000 Germans. Gdynia, the new port, had 200 inhabitants 1919 and now has 45,000, all Polish. Return of Netze Also Sought. In addition to the Danzig Free State and Pomerella the Germans demand ths return of the Netze district, also taken by Frederick the Great in the first wmuon This has roughly some 250,000 inhabitants. More than half were Germans before the war, but today it is doubtful it more than 75,000 re- main. Bromberg, for example, which counted 90,00 Germans and 10,000 Poles in 1910, has now 110,000 Poles and 9,000 Germans. In the Polish Corridor itself, there- fore, there are today not more than 150,000 Germans and somewhere be- tween 1,000,000 and 1,100,000 Poles. Thus even with the Danzig Free State added the Poles would number 1,100,000 against 500,900 Germans. Revision of the treaty would mean turning more than a million Poles and Kashubes— and the Kashubes are fewer than 200,- 000—over to Germany. Where there are today 150,300 Germans living under Pclish rule there would, under Senator Borah's program, be more than a mil- lion Slavs, 900,000 of them Poles, placed under German raie. No nation wcuwid voluntarily surren- der. a million of its nationals to foreign rule. This is the fact, utterly aside from any question of the strategic or economic character of the territory on which this population lives. “Why do you talk of territory?” M. Zeleski, the foreign minister cf Poland, once asked me. “What we Foles think of is our *"Nelerineie evertheless it is necessary to con- sider the territorial aspect. "o'ne of the major reasons for Wilson's advocacy of the corridor was the fact that it was the sole feasihle means of providing Poland, a nation with a population greater than that of Spain and an area in excess of thac of the British Isles, :fi’t‘:? Oul.lel! to dthe sea. If the cor- vere restoied to Ge , Pol access to the se would be over German soil and Poland would be at the mercy of the Germans exactly as the German communications with East Prussia are at_the mercy of the Poles now. For Poland the supnression of the corridor would mean the loss of a million Poles and all access to the sea over Polish territory. On both counts the proposal would be un- thinkeble. All Polish leaders, Ppolitical parties, reglonal groups are agreed upon the fact that Poland must fight to the death rather than cede a single inch of the corridor. No public man or political party could survive agreement to any such proposal of re- vision. Poland is organized and pre- pared to fight to the deth to hold :.:Ieb territory v;h:rhh lv;“ restored to Y Teason of e insistence American President. s Over against this Polish case one must set the German. Loss of the corridor cut off something more than two millions of Germans living in East Prussia and the fragment of west beyond the Vistula, left to the Reich, from the Fatherland. The erection of the Danzig Free State shut off 350,000 more. In the corridor upward of half a million Germans were assigned to Polish rule. But in the corridor nearly 350,000 Germans have already emigrated. They have been replaced by an onrushing Slavic wave. Able to Shut Off Traffic. In Danzig the laws of the free state still prevent Polish settlement. But | now Poland has constructed its own port of Gdynia, which has better rail- way connection with the coal mines and a far more modern port equip- ment. As a consequence Poland can, if it chooses, shut off all traffic from Danzig, and the result will be the ruin of the commercial prosperity of :::tww:. :& ll;uu: whk_neh will simply re- ‘what as alrea ha) the industrial field. X e ‘Th the Poles can say to the Danzigers, “Let Poles settle in the city or we shut off your trafic.” But if the Danzigers surrender the city will | be as swiftly Polandized as was Brom- berg, for Polish labor is cheaper than German. Danzig is thus a city lit- erally under siege, and if the existing situation endures long it cannot escape surrender. Yet it remains today heart and soul German and overwhelmingly German in poruhunn. of East Prussia is hardly The case different. It is a land of ] .rge estates. These estates were farmed by Polish labor brought in for the time being and sent home out ‘of season. The native German population was stat! and his safety. To guard himp properly the (Congfhued on Fourth Page.) estates are heavily mortgaged and de- pend on vast subsidies rrom the Reich to keep going. But at the frontiers are waiting a vast Polish population to take up the land and able to farm it successfully because of low standard of living. And East Prussia, peril. | Vistula, is actually threatened. | Polish 'Corridor endures permanently, | nothing is more likely than that, with | the passing of time, the pacific_pene- | tration of the Poles, both into Danzig | and into Ecst Prussia, must take place. | A high birth rate, a low standard of | living, a great land hunger—these are | the factors which coun: for the Poles. | Thus the Germans are seeking the r turn of the corridor not merely to re- lease the German minority or to restore the unity of the Reich, but, beyond ail else, to prevent the gradual extinction of Germanism in all the region beyond the Vistula and in Danzig. Corridor Polonized. “Give us 20 years and we shall have nothing to fear,” Ramon Dmowski said at Paris during the peace ccnference, and when I talked with him in Warsaw last January, he said smilingly, “We need only 10 years_more.” ery week the Poles are winning & battle in all this eastern region. Up ward of 750,000 Germans have already departed from Pomerella, Posen and Upper Silesia. Today the corridor is thoroughly Polonized and a plebiscite would give a Polish majority of 7 or 8 to 1. Tomorrow the fi may break into Danzig. Beyond lies the of the evential absorption of East Prus- sia. The Poles are winning in peace & sttuggle which could hardly be success- ful if arms were empioyed. After 700 years of intermittent but tremendous effort the Germans are faced with the possible extinction of German civiliza- tion east of the Polisz Corridor. But it is necessary to des: with one clear misapprehension on the part Senator Borah, one sl widely in this country—namely, that ia some we3 France could prevail upon Poland & return the corridor to Germany peace- fully. Nothing is less accurate. France could no more persuade Poland to turn over the million Poles of the corridor to Germany than the British, for ex- ample, could persuade us to return Southern California to the Mexicans. ‘Whether France supports Poland or not, Poland wili fight to the bitter end¢ to hold the corridor. But to defeat Poland Germany would have to return. and, having rearmed and conquered d | Poland, would be able at once to unite with Austria, overwhelm Czechoslovakia and set up a Mitteleuropa of more than eighty millions of people. In the face of such a menace Prance would sink to the level of a second-class state. Poland Holds Upper Handl. It is Poland, and not hd::o'. which question. ?sn:io “1,,“"‘?‘;_., frontlers i =pnrt them. She cannot afford must sup it to be 4 ey LTy Ty te guarantee would not have been involved with the corridor question. Now it is too late. Senator Borah is perfectly right in his conviction that the Germans will oetion. “He e wrong, OWeVer, in. Sup- uation. He is wrong, ho 3 - posing that the French could in any way influence the Poles to resign their present frontiers. Exactly as in the case of Alsace-Lorraine, only war can change the corridor boundaries. But such & war would involve all of the east of Europe from the Baltic to the Black Sea, Russia, Rumania, Hungary, Czecho- slovakia, and Jugoslavia would cer- tainly be drawn in, and eventually Italy and France, as well. It is perfectly true, as Borah asserts, that a peace of good will between Ger- many and her former enemies is out of the question while the corridor stands, but it is equally true that only war can bring about a change in the corridor. And while the Germans hail the Borah statement, the Poles, Czechs and French see in it a dangerous in- citement to war. Filipino Job Hunters Asked to Avoid Hawaii HONOLULU, Hawali—Gov. Law- rence M. Judd of Hawaii has taken steps to prevent needless immigration into the island of unskilled labor from the Philippines. He has cabled to Governor General Dwight F. Davis of the Philippines cautioning the Philipe pine government against the coming to Hawail of numbers of Filipinos without definite prospects or promise of employ- ment. The Hawalian Sugar Planters’ Asso- ciation has simultaneously reduced its regular importations of Filipinos to about 25 a month—just to keep up a “skeleton” organization for labor sup- El‘y purposes. In the past the planters ve at times brought in several hun- dreds a month, but the labor surply of the plantation is now adequate and fl;el policy isito guard against a surplus of labor. Unemployment in Hawail is not acute, but the island cannot absorb the un- employed of other sections, and no one from the United States should coms here without work assured. The go ernor's protest was based on the ap- prehension that, irrespective of the careful organization of the Hawaiian planters to maintain labor supply at the right level, large numbers of Filipinos might come independently and withcut prospect of work. A good many are al- ready doing this, and is % to warn them before they decide to leave the Philip- pines that the governor acted. Canals to Link Volga With Moskwa River MOSCOW, U. 8. S. R.—Prepara- tions have begun for the construction of a canal that will connect the Rivers Moskwa and Volga. The canal, which will be approximately 160 miles in gth, will be finished in three or four dll..n.wn up by Awdjejew, a Soviet en- gineer. By another canal the Moskwa is ing linked up with the River Oka. Construction of this canal mnmnu)y five years and will cont ,000,000 rubles. Moscow, a quite Continental city, will thus be turned into a port, Wi Eln ot S, e St o Sea uimua% Volga-] Canal and the Baltic é'::m; the system of even tends to decline now. The great