THE GIFT HORSE

Of the several terms offered France by Chancellor Adolf Hitler, the two most important are, first, the offer of a 25 year non-aggression agreement and, secondly, the German decision to re-enter the League of Nations. The attention of statesmen all over Europe is centering on these two rather long and sharp thorns in the olive branch extended by the Fuehrer, and the solon of France are carefully scrutinizing them under their high-powered microscopes to see wherein lies the rub. Clearly there is something which has aroused the suspicious of Flandin, Eden, Benes, Litvinoff and the other members of the continental brain-trust.

To the casual observer, what could seem more desirable or opportune than the offer of 25 years of peace by Germany? Twenty-five years in which France could develop her industries, encourage foreign trade and if necessary, gather around her a group of willing and eager allies to dispel forever the clouds of war which hover overhead now. And in those twenty-five years, Europe is thinking, what would Germany be doing? She would be rearming, strengthening herself militarily; economically; politically. Ten years and she would leap at the throat of France like a mad yet desperate dog, ready to rend from her her very life, or, if that were impossible, as much as she could safely tear off and carry away. The non-aggression pact would see the fate of many another treaty which has become inconvenient to German aspirations and intolerable to the German General Staff.

The offer to re-enter the League of Nations, while on the surface seeming like an about-face and an admission of defeat, will in effect also create a highly dangerous situation. Germany must not be allowed to rejoin the League. Her only excuse for doing so has been frankly stated:-she wants to reopen the question of colonies, and discard the Versailles treaty in its entirely. Neither of these moves can possibly be countered at the present moment and as one correspondent stated in a despatch, her re-entrance would have the effect of admitting a wolf into a pack of sheep. The League is so near the brink as it is, that to allow Germany to use her chambers as a battle-ground on which to fight for her territorial possessions would be to ring down the curtain on the last remaining organ fighting for world peace. This cannot, and must not be allowed.

When examined carefully, the offers of the Reich government all bear the familiar ear-marks of the proverbial gift-horse. Frankly, all have that hollow ring; the appearance of flimsy subterfuge; the look of ill-disguised bad-faith. France must assume a stern, unyielding attitude at once if she is to preserve her prestige, and retain the support and alliance of the Soviet. Germany must be faced now and beaten in this desperate gamble, for in five or ten years time, she, and not France, will be once more the King-pin on the European alley.