"Insane Hopes"

"We have not forgotten the wound on our eastern flank and the lopping off of the Vistula district, nor have we forgotten how shabbily Woodrow Wilson urged the unnatural severing of East Prussia from the Fatherland. . . . We intend, of course, to fulfill our European mission without going to war, but, on the contrary, only soldiers with front experience can liquidate the War."

So spoke blunt Gottfried R. Treviranus, Minister Without Portfolio in the cabinet of Chancellor Bruning, to cheering crowds assembled last week before the steps of the Reichstag. Six hours later the protests started, piled up in wave upon wave of outraged French and Polish anguish to a holocaust of denunciation.

In Paris, shaggy-browed Aristide Briand immediately sent for German Ambassador Leopold von Hoesch, talked to him like an uncle, sent him packing to Berlin to repeat B'rer Briand's remarks to German Foreign Minister Julius Curtius. White-chinned ex-President Raymond Poincare, who, like ex-President Coolidge, is temporarily a newspaper columnist, wrote with spluttering pen:

"France will not permit treaty changes on any account. . . . The German idea of treaty revision is immediate or progressive remaking of the map of Europe at the pleasure of the Reich. . . . Germany returns to the tactics of sabre-rattling to get what she wants. . . ."

Eager to impress French readers with the "warlike spirit" of Germany, Le Journal reproduced the design of the new German coins, headlined the coin's motto: "The Rhine, Germany's River, Not Germany's Frontier."

"This is a document the importance of which will escape nobody," wrote the editor solemnly. "It needs no emphasis, but it inspires serious reflections."

Wrote Andre ("Pertinax") Geraud:

"Dr. Treviranus was informed . . . that changes might be made in the present status quo of Europe. ... It proved sufficient to inspire insane hopes in Dr. Treviranus' German head."

Poland, jealous of every move against her dearly guarded corridor to the sea, was just as vociferous. Foreign Minister August Zaleski made formal protest to Berlin.

"Poland is set!" screamed the Gazeta Polska, "and ready to defend her frontiers to the last drop of blood!"

Startled by the speed and strength of these attacks, Dr. Treviranus insisted last week that he had been misunderstood, repeated one phrase in his speech which had not been quoted in French and Polish papers:

"The way of peaceful understanding is the only possible one for ending the wrong of drawing up boundaries as they are now."

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