IDES OF MARCH AGAIN

Like historians, the papers tell us that, Austria has no longer a name of its own, that on April tenth the "free" plebiscite will be an inevitable Nazi victory, that Italy is dubious about Germany's friendship. When these facts are scrambled together with others, the mixture, for one thing, shows that the European situation is little different from what it was before the First World War. England and France are still inseparable; England will not stand by and watch Germany make her a secondary power, and France, if Blum can keep her government upright, will fight to prevent Nazi enticement. Suspicious of his rival and unwilling, for the sake of his prestige, to be made the lesser of two evils, Mussolini can extend his arm only toward England. Thus, it is E. I. E. against Germany-Austria.

If Europe has the same political face as in 1914, it will probably react to it in the same way. Germany lacks colonies, so she claims, and economic necessities. In western Czechoslovakia are not only three million Germans but deposits of coal and iron. Sitting in Vienna and trying to soothe II Duce with the words "I shall never forget this day." Hitler must be wetting his lips over the proximity of Czechoslovakia. But, superb timer that he is, he will wait, it may be a month, it may be two before he again moves. Meanwhile, Italy will debate on whether Germany or England offers the best security and probably lean toward the latter. With Chamberlain's policy of dictator-bargaining ruined, Eden will be redeemed and Italy's favor courted. Today, the fifteenth of March, both England and France and Italy are trembling with doubt and fear, and whatever dire prophecies they make, these former allies must realize that right still will be might.