Evening Star Newspaper, September 26, 1936, Page 5

- PLITIN FRANCE STRESSED BY WAR But Underlying Factors Are Essentially Different, Observer Says. International repercussions of the Spanish civil war, especially as they bear on the qutlook for peace or war in Europe, are examined here in the second of three dis- patches by a famous writer and Joreign correspondent who has just reached Paris after traveling sev- eral weeks in Spain and recording his impressions of under-surface conditions there. BY WALTER DURANTY, By Radio to The Star. PARIS, September 26—The Span- sh civil war is an advantage for Hit- ler, but it puts France in a corre- spondingly difficult position. Superficially at least, the French government is not greatly different from Spain’s. Each is the product of & leftish coalition—which is some- What incoherent—against a center and right minority. This minority made the same accusations against the Blum government as the die-hard conserva- tives made against the labor govern- ments some years ago in England and as the Liberty Leaguers made more recently against the Roosevelt admine istration in America—that it, willy or nilly, is leading the country toward bolshevism, anarchy and class war. Hitler thundered forth the same ac- cusation at Nurnberg and events in Spain give him—as they give the French “right” critics of the Blum government—some measure of justifi- cation. Essential Difference Cited. In point of fact, however, there is an essential difference between the situations in France and Spain. In the latter country what the Marxists call revolutionary conditions did ex- ist—that is to say, the vast mass of discontented workers and peasants was driven by an intolerable position to Tight against the special privilege of the minority. ‘That is true of Spain, but it is not true of France, whose workers, for the most part, want no more than raised wages to meet the higher cost of living and whose numerically powerful farm- ers chiefly want to reduce the profits of the middlemen, which make such a wide gap between the producer and consumer. H Nevertheless, it is pbvious that the Bpanish civil war has greatly increased French anxiety, which comes from two causes—first, a belief approaching cer- tainty that Germany, sooner or later, will make a bid to revise by violence, meaning war, the territorial status quo established by the treaty of Versailles, and, second, France’s own internal dissensions, which the Spanish events have accentuated and embittered. Charges of Press. On the one hand, there is the gov- ernment—a loose bloc of left parties, Radicals, Socialists, Communists, which already seems disintegrating— pledged to social reform which is being opposed by the privileged class and the upper bourgeoisie. On the other hand, there is the wave of strikes, with its ominious factor that the strikers have begun to occupy factories. This en- ables the “right” press, with its pow- erful financial, big business and cleri- €al support, to declare more or less overtly that the popular front govern- ment is & tool in the hands of the la- bor unions and is leading the country toward bolshevism. That, of course, is Hitler's thesis, and the fact that a politcally and economically important section of French opinion is echoing it shows how profound is the dissension caused in French ranks by Spanish events. On the one side, there is the ex- treme left, with its war cry of “planes and munitions for the Spanish gov- ernment.” On the other side, the French right is attacking both the B8panish government and the govern- ment of Premier Blum in terms that might almost be dictated by Hitler himself. Realize Germans Enemy. Thus, to the superficial view, France presents a desperate and hopeless spectacle—a country divided against itself and cowering beneath the great shadows of internal strife and Ger- man onslaught. But the superficial view fails to take into account three essential factors of the French situa- tion—Airst, that no revolutionary con- ditions exist in France; second, that the French people have more cold logic and common sense than any other people in Europe, and, third, that every Frenchman, from the red- dest of the Reds to the Royalists, knows that Germany is the enemy, and, in the final instance, will united against the German danger as in 1914. ‘These factors do much to countere act Germany’s advantages, which consists, firstly, in unity—or the ap- pearance of unity—against France's internal divisions, and, secondly, in the fact that France, as one of Europe's “haves,” has more to lose by war than Germany, which is Europe's greatest “have-not.” Franco-Soviet Pact. ‘There remains, however, the vexed s pyright, 1936, by the Norta American Newspaper Alliance, Inc.) S AT ) TOPICS LISTED aQ <] =] [ g 3 ® g Give Two Sermons. "y THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D, . + » in sudden green or black against the foil of a dull black 'Pri;\c;s frock . . . typical of e new late after- 539.75 noon elegance Other Dresses Begin at $1695 MissEs’ Dazssss, TRIRD FLOOR. . + . combine colorful forces in a junior’s suit-frock. The tunic coat tops a brown wool skirt & the velveteen blouse “’picks up”’ the gold o7 e et 24 25 Other Suits Begin at 51695 JuNion MissEs’ APPaRsL, Fourrn FLooR, « « . 'waist deep at the back and forming the sleeves of Q czt 'o’fl im- port "hair- cloth,” enhances even its own chic 3300 Other Dress Costs Begin at 365 Coars, Tump Froom. = - WS C, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 926, 1936. « .« with the further chic of gray Persian lamb and swagger ful:\‘;shs .+ . this In black Persian, $395 Other Fur Coats Begin at $195 TFoas, Tamo PLooR, .« « the boxy coat and the flannel blouse of a sports suit . . . that combines green-accented gold blouse and green with brown tweed; . and red-ac- cented gray ’ 75 with blue __.. 49 - . Other Sperts Suitz Begin at 335 m ‘Tump FLOOR. WOODWARD & LOTHROP 10™11™ F AND G STREETS Puone DIsmicr 5300 . . . the season’s leading fabric, with a most im- portant fur . . . in a three- piece suit. Note the use of the fur on both coat and $|25 jacket Other Fur-trimmed Suits Begin at $39.75 .« . in the hands of Lilly Dache and you have the sculptured turban that is ;he_ da;:‘ing 'of aris. Phrygian helmet version 33250 in misty green Other Hats Begin at $12.75 Mnunvexy SaLoN, Tamp Foor. Setsa New Fashion Scene ... with new clothes that make you glad to be alive—and rushing into a new season. Hats ascend, silhouettes are exciting—color enlivens everything— look for sudden splashes of it even on black. We cite eight ways to chic. ... yards of it, in the skirt, very little in the deep cut bodice of a frock that looks like your grandmother’s ball gozn.mvle:vet accented— an uge sleeves are de- $ .75 tachable ____ 49 Other Gowns Begin at $1695 Formar Roow, Tump» Firoon.