"New Era'

"New Era"

Early in the week it became evident that the Locarno Security Conference (TIME, Oct. 12, 1925) was drawing to a successful close. One evening Mrs. Austen Chamberlain and the wives of several of the other delegates signalized that the event was imminent by demurely planting themselves in chairs on the sidewalk before tha Palms de 'justice, where the conferees were in session. Crowded about them was a group of eager Swiss, bearing fireworks; the hamlet of which they were citizens was about to become immortal.

Suddenly a window on the second floor of the Palais flew up, and the chief foreign ministers of Europe announced that they had just initialed the Rhine pact and a sheaf of arbitration treaties! While candles all but showered the distinguished statesmen with sparks, Aristide Briand, Foreign Minister of France, and Hans Luther, Chancellor of Germany, beamed out upon the multitude, with the consciousness that seven years after the World War their countries had at last joined as equals in an accord for peace.

Looking over their shoulders, Austen Chamberlain, Foreign Minister of Britain, waved triumphantly to the cheering crowd. And Premier Mussolini, who had signed for Italy to indicate that she would join England in guaranteeing the peace of the Rhineland, appeared at the window for a moment.

Within the room an impetuous statesman (unidentified by the cables) brandished the initialed documents for all to see. They will be promptly submitted to the nations concerned, and formal signatures are to be exchanged in London about Dec. 1. Since President von Hindenburg and his Cabinet approved the agreements by telegraph before they were initialed, competent observers consider it cer. tain that the following treaties will eventually come into force:

1 ) The Rhineland security compact among Germany, Belgium, France, Great Britain, Italy.

2 ) An arbitration convention between Germany and France.

3 ) An arbitration convention between Germany and Belgium.

4 ) An arbitration treaty between Germany and Poland.

5 ) An arbitration treaty between Germany and Czecho-Slovakia.

The Rhineland Pact, which is of course the key-treaty, contains a joint declaration by France and Germany that they will never go to war again, and that they will arbitrate all mutual disputes in perpetuity. All existing treaties are to remain unaffected. And Germany agrees to apply at once for admission to the League of Nations.

The present demilitarized Rhine zone, established by the Treaty of Versailles, is to be held forever inviolate by both France and Germany, unless one or the other shall first violate certain provisions of the Treaty of Versailles and the League Covenant, which are cited as bearing upon the matter.* In the event that the Rhine zone is violated by either France or Germany, England and Italy agree to come to the aid of the attacked power in punishing the aggressor.

Additional Agreements. Supplementing the documents actually in initialed, two important understandings were arrived at:

1) France undertook to guarantee the arbitration agreements made between Germany and France's two allies, Poland and Czecho-Slovakia.

2) The Allies agreed to make a number of most important concessions to Germany" in return for her good behavior at LoCarno: a) The Allies will "recommend" (i.e., practically "guarantee") that the League, in enforcing upon Germany the military and economic obligations assumed by a member state, will not insist that she perform acts which she would find difficult, dangerous or impossible in her present disarmed condition; b) If possible Germany, on entering the League, will be given a mandate of some sort to administer (probably one of her former colonies); c) The evacuation of Cologne by the Allies will be speeded up, and the Sarre region governed less harshly.

Significance. Mr. Chamberlain asserted that the Locarno Conference has topped "the watershed between war and peace. ... If these treaties will not keep the peace of Europe, nothing will." Said M. Briand: "A new Europe must arise out of Locarno!" And Premier Painleve echoed from Paris: "Ce jour est immortel!"

For Germany, Herr Stresemann spoke as follows: "Locarno will have its deep significance, if it is not the end but the beginning of a period of confidence and cooperation among the nations. . . . Upright and happy we greet this great development for the peace of Europe." Added M. Vandervelde, Belgian Foreign Minister: "The compact opens the way for disarmament. . . . Certainly Germany will enter the work with full vigor as a League member." And Premier Mussolini concluded: "Italy has signed with a desire to cooperate in placing the continental nations on a basis of new relations."

Other Comment:

The London Times: "The whole treaty of mutual guarantee and all the arbitration conventions are built within the framework of the League of Nations. They are, as it were, liquid cement which is being poured into the hollow places in the League fabric."

Sir Esme Howard, British Ambassador to the U. S.: "The news of this agreement is almost the finest thing that has happened in my lifetime. . . . Mr, Austen Chamberlain has been working for it ever since he took over the portfolio of Foreign Affairs ... It means hope for the future . . . brings France and Germany together . . . and is a blow to Russian Communism. . ."

The New York Times: "It is not surprising that the French Prime Minister speaks of the day of the signing of the treaty of security between France and Germany as 'historic'. ... It was a bad day for pessimists . . . ."

The New York Herald-Tribune: "Here is a conference which has not ended in disillusionment, discord and unfulfilled promises. . . . These statesmen have laid the foundation of a new European structure ..."

Chicago Evening Post: "None but the most daring of prophets would have ventured to predict so hopeful a turn in the Old World drama from the outlook which confronted us prior to the adoption of the Dawes plan."

Kansas City Star: "In the enthusiasm of the moment ... it would be a mischievous mistake to assume . -. . that now war is abolished for all time. . . . The Locarno treaties if fully ratified, will be of enormous importance in stabilizing Europe for a considerable period."

Berlin Tagblatt: "Germany, which two years ago was isolated, spurned beneath the victor's heels and seemed the poorest ragamuffin in Europe has today, while still lacking an army, become a factor of might once more upon whose friendship weight is laid and who must be treated with consideration."

Vorwaerts: "What was done at Locarno may be good or bad. German Socialists incline to the assumption that on the whole it was good. German Nationalists, on the contrary, hold that it was very bad."

* Articles 42, 43 and 44 of the Versailles Treaty forbidding Germany to introduce armed forces into the Rhine zone; and Articles 15 and 16 of the League of Nations Covenant covering the obligations of the League members with respect to making war.