THE DIPLOMACY OF DEFENSE

Although Belgium's importance is minor, politically and, to a lesser extent, industrially, her foreign minister's article in the New York Times, reveals, none the less, an interesting process of diplomatic fortification. M. Vandevelde's narrative of Belgium's post-war mancuvres well illustrates the triple barriers of pledge that are exacted on the continent to allay suspicion and provide security.

The Versailles treaty neglected, as between Germany and Belgium, the old neutrality clause, deeming it "no longer curresponding to existing circumstances". Belgium turned at once to other means. She concluded in 1920, a defensive alliance with France, based in the words of M. Vandevelde, "on common sufferings endured and common dangers faced". She has cemented industrial comity by new commercial treaties with Austria, France, Germany, Spain, and Czecho-Slovakia. In company with the continental nations in general, she joined the League of Nations and the World Court. With Italy, France, and Britain, she was party to the Locarno pact: and it is significant of lingering fears, that M. Vandevelde values most highly the specific German-Belgian arbitration convention appended to the treaty.

Barricaded from assault by means of membership in the League and negotiation outside of it, secured by a host of expressions of political and industrial amity, Belgium seems to have reconstructed what M. Vandevelde calls "her shattered international status". Yet the very multiplicity of guarantees reveals that post-war diplomacy in Europe is very much a heritage from prewar days; and suggests that this is likely to be so until the League of Nations, the World Court, and the Locarno treaties attain the prestige of a much longer life.