1938: Internationalism

Internationalism in 1938 suffered a terrible decline if not a temporary extinction. The practice of collective security, peaceful change, international democracy, interdependence and non-aggression was pushed into the diseard in favor of aggressive nationalism, ultimata and threats, if not actual use of physical force, and unrelenting antagonism. Austria lost its name and independence by annexation into Greater Germany; Czechoslovakia, through annexation of the Sudetenland by Germany, Teschen by Poland, and other sections by Hungary, and economic subjection of the remainder to Germany, possesses little practical independence; in Danzig only the Nazi party survives, and apparently neither the League of Nations nor Poland will seriously oppose incorporation into the Reich; Memel is virtually ready for the taking. All of this will have occurred contrary to treaty obligations. The status quo of 1919, which Article XIX of the Covenant proved ineffectual to alter and Articles X and XVI unable to support, was changed, not by war or by use of actual force, but certainly not by peaceful adjustment or pacific settlement with full respect for national sovereignty and observance of contractual and legal obligations.

League of Nations.

Political Aspects.

The League of Nations had no share in these events beyond watching anxiously and trying without effect to suggest palliatives in the undeclared wars continuing in Spain and China. In fact, Prime Minister Chamberlain said to the House of Commons on Feb. 22: 'If I am right, as I am confident I am, in saying that the League as constituted today is unable to provide collective security for anybody, then I say we must not delude ourselves, and, still more, we must not try to delude small nations into thinking that they will be protected by the League against aggression and acting accordingly, when we know that nothing of the kind may be expected.' The League's impotence resulted not through its own fault but because it has no existence as a separate entity and therefore can function only according to the amount of cooperation and support supplied it by its more powerful members. Reluctance of League members to alter their basic policies left it helpless. By the end of 1938 its active membership had diminished from sixty-three to forty-nine states and included only three great powers.

Reform of the Covenant has perforce made little progress; it has centered around the question of collective sanctions and, despite admitting the obvious practical value of amending Article XVI to omit obligatory sanctions in favor of sanctions applicable by individual members according to their circumstances — or indeed no sanctions at all — no change was adopted. Twenty-seven states agreed in September to verbal changes separating the Covenant from the Peace Treaties. One may hope, but not feel confident, that this slight improvement in 'application of the principles' of the Covenant does not come too late for the present League of Nations.

Non-political Activities.

But while the League's political activities bore little if any fruit during 1938, in non-political and technical fields its successful work continued. In matters of economics and finance, health, dangerous drugs, refugees, intellectual cooperation, to mention only a few, League organizations were active and helpful towards real internationalism. For example, the Economic and Financial Organization unceasingly warned that no permanent improvement in international economic conditions can be expected, during the present political muddle; even with an improvement in the basic economic situation, so long as political tension exists between states, with the ensuing necessity for spending vast and non-productive sums on armaments, depression and interference with normal economic activities are inevitable.

The organization has gained by experience; instead of the more spectacular international convention and conference of universal adoption, it now used the more fruitful method of specialized service for states desiring aid and the restricted agreement; its economic outlook has broadened to emphasize consumption and man as consumer as in its nutrition studies. The Health activities cover the wide range of physical fitness, standardization of hormones, malaria, schistomaiasis, the anti-rabies campaign, sanitation, an international center for research on leprosy, etc. This brief selection shows the reality of League action in non-political fields. Substantial value can be given to the work of the International Labor Organization which has not greatly lost in membership and has gained the United States' active cooperation.

Appeasement Policy.

In place of the democratic method of agreement on the basis of security for all, the year saw a heightening of power politics of which the 'appeasement' policy used towards Chancellor Hitler with reference to Czechoslovakia furnished the best example. As alternative to aggression and open hostilities which might involve all of Europe, a settlement came through personal agreement by the leaders of the four great powers in Europe, arrived at by personal contact, and foreshadowing control by a four-power pact instead of collective international action. Characterized as 'more armistice than peace' and as more lacking in reciprocity than appeasement, its defense existed in the absence of actual fighting and in the effort to prevent the differences between democracies and dictatorships from crystallizing into 'unrelenting antagonisms.' The farce of a plebescite was avoided; the fiction of a four-power guarantee of the new Czech frontiers was set up. In the name of self-determination of minorities changes were made in Czechoslovakia which remain to be followed elsewhere. Actually a Greater Germany of approximately 80,000,000 people with influence over a Mittel Europa of about 200,000,000 has raised the issue of equilibrium in Europe and necessitated a return to a balance of power if German dominion is to be kept in place. In spite of the Munich peacemakers appeasement of the struggle between democracy and fascism has apparently not brought satisfaction, its only justification. The effect upon such accepted concepts of international law and relations as the sovereign state and the sanctity of international contracts is obvious.

Treaties.

Lack of respect for international law and for treaty obligations appeared concretely in Germany's denial of its succession to Austria's debt-obligations, while taking its assets, and in Mexico's expropriation of American and British-owned property without immediate and adequate provision for compensation. Such treaties as the Czech-German Arbitration Treaty, which was recognized as existing even after the Locarno Treaty had ceased, the Kellogg Pact, the Nine-Power Treaty, were seriously violated. On the other hand, the series of bilateral pacts of more or less binding quality between Great Britain and France, Great Britain and Germany, Great Britain and Italy, France and Germany, and, it is hoped, between France and Italy, is little characterized by their contractual nature. The unsettled question of colonies for Germany furnishes one focus for disturbing these post-Munich accords.

Two instances of treaty revision by mutual agreement occurred: between the Little Entente and Hungary, whereby the latter was freed from the armaments' limitations of the Treaty of Trianon; and between the Balkan Entente and Bulgaria regarding similar restrictions in the Treaty of Neuilly. All of these acts affect not simply the general inviolability of international contracts but the whole idea of sanctity of law and the sense of right in the international community. The United States has repeatedly insisted upon faithful observance of treaty and legal engagements as fundamental in international relations, as did the Conference of American States at Lima.

Armaments.

Rearmament, not disarmament, stood out in 1938; as reported in the League of Nations Armaments Yearbook, the estimated costs of 1938 exceeded those of 1937 by two and a half billion dollars. Regarding limitation of naval armaments, the United States, Great Britain and France found it necessary, because of Japan's attitude, to use the escalator clause of the London Naval Treaty of 1936 to increase the displacement limitation for capital ships from 35,000 to 45,000 tons.

Aerial Bombings Protested.

However, the year was not devoid of impetus toward internationalism. Aerial bombings of civilian populations in Spain and China and use of poison gas in China brought protest, not simply on humanitarian grounds, but as against modern legal practices in warfare. Condemnation of aerial bombing came from the United States, Great Britain and the Vatican; the subject was on the agenda of the Assembly of the League, where the Acting President made an appeal for the total prohibition of aerial bombardment by all nations and the British proposed codification of usages in air warfare to include especially the illegality of bombardment of civilian populations. Investigations both of bombings and of use of toxic gases took place, and public opinion denounced the practices.

Jewish Refugee Problem.

The situation of the Jews and the resulting problem of refugees, especially from Greater Germany, brought general condemnation from governments, organizations and public opinion. The new Inter-Governmental Committee, to facilitate involuntary emigration, immigration and settlement, works independently, yet cooperates with the new League High Commissioner for Refugees who succeeded to the activities of the Nansen Office and the High Commissioner for Refugees coming from Germany. While the two existing agencies cannot be responsible financially for refugees, their task in all other aspects of the problem is huge and one which may at any moment have to be extended to refugees from other countries which follow a rigid nationalism.

Economic Internationalism.

Economic internationalism obtained support in both theory and practice. The well known views of Secretary of State Cordell Hull for the greatest possible liberalization of international commercial relations received explicit backing from such international sources as the League of Nations, the Lima Conference, and the Van Zeeland Report on the International Economic Situation. All agreed that economic nationalism or autarchy is destructive and that abolition of hindrances to world trade and collaboration on a wide and equal basis in the economic sphere will bring in its wake political appeasement also.

The Anglo-American reciprocal trade agreement of Nov. 17 brought to the Hull program its most important achievement by stimulating the commerce of the two largest trading countries in the world. This eighteenth trade agreement under Secretary Hull was accompanied by a new arrangement with Canada greatly enlarging the benefits to both countries. Aside from economic benefits from the treaties, their value exists in showing a diplomatic solidarity between democratic countries as well as between the Western Hemisphere and the British Commonwealth of Nations, and in setting up a wide defense against the economic nationalism of the totalitarian states. The Eighth International Conference of American States at Lima made a Declaration of Fundamental Principles in international relations and expressed its firm belief in the continental solidarity of the twenty-one American states.

Radio Broadcasting.

The record for internationalism would be incomplete without mention of the fact that through the development of broadcasting the world has become more than ever unified and the interdependence of states concretely apprehended. Never before 1938 has public opinion been universally as adequately informed of events taking place or have its repercussions been so effective.