1939: Internationalism

Internationalism was hard-hit during 1939 through acts of violence and aggression, declared and undeclared wars, treaties broken, a network of bilateral pacts disregarding collective security and safeguarding individual aggression and assistance in wrong-doing, ideologies confused into power politics, the international community and its methods for the most part neglected. In short, political nationalism was in full swing and the practices of economic nationalism predominated. Yet some glimmers of internationalism shone through: peoples were in closer touch than ever before — the radio broadcast information and peace messages, transport by air and sea cut down distances. On an international scale, distress received sympathy and aid. Religions appeals appeared to offer a unifying basis for ideals and conduct. The conviction spread that, after the war, must come, from the welter of dissident sovereign states, some international union, federation, or league better than the League of Nations of 1919.

Alignment of the Nations of the War.

The year saw the beginning of a European War and of the undeclared war between the Soviet Union and Finland, the continuance of 'hostilities' by Japan against China, and the end of the civil war in Spain. It left Europe divided into the two main camps of Great Britain and France as opposed to Germany, with Turkey an ally of the former, in case of Italian intervention on the German side in the Balkan or Black Sea area, and as in the case of Poland, an Allied guarantee against aggression in Rumania and Greece the German Reich, now including Austria, Danzig and the Polish Corridor, Memel, and the greater part of Czechoslovakia, with the so-called republic of Slovakia, had a mutual assistance pact and an economic alliance with Russia and economic agreements with Rumania, and the remnant of the anti-comintern pact with Italy and Japan; Italy had absorbed Albania and to the best of its ability had bettered its commercial arrangements with the Balkans and improved its relations somewhat with France and England and the Papacy. Of the regional ententes, the Little Entente had lost one member and must be adjudged dead, the Balkan and Near East Ententes existed but seemed swallowed in larger problems involving Europe, and the states of the Baltic Entente had become Russian protectorates. The Oslo Powers were endeavoring to preserve their neutrality and freedom of trade in spite of Russian war upon Finland and Denmark's agreement to a non-aggression treaty with Germany. Belgium and Holland existed in imminent danger of invasion. Spain and Hungary, signatories of the anti-comintern pact along with Germany, Italy and Japan, were patently lukewarm to the pact and hoped to preserve their neutrality, as did all other states in Europe. In the Western Hemisphere the twenty-one republics meeting at Panama on Sept. 24 to consult upon measures for preserving neutrality throughout the American continent and territorial waters, gave evidence of regional unanimity.

Territorial changes by violent means occurred in the seizure of Albania by Italy, of Danzig and the Corridor by Germany, the breaking up of Czechoslovakia, and the destruction of Poland by Germany and Russia. Formal recognition of the new status was in general accorded only by states sympathetic to aggressive methods. The United States formally stated in connection with Albania its maintenance of the Stimson Doctrine opposing forcible and violent invasions, and steadily refused to recognize the results of aggression. Reconstruction of Czechoslovakia and Poland, and even of Austria, became a war aim of the Allies, and official relations were continued with the Czech and Polish Governments in exile. By April 1 most states, including the United States, had recognized the Franco Government in Spain.

The Refugee Problem.

The year was marked by migrations of peoples on a wide scale. The refugee problem grew steadily by additional numbers of refugees from Czechoslovakia, Spain, Poland, Germany and Austria. For the most part Czechs, as well as Germans and Austrians, were the care of the League of Nations High Commission and the Inter-Governmental (Evian) Committee for Refugees; of the five hundred thousand Spaniards who crossed into France during the civil war, the majority had been repatriated by the end of 1939, but many not daring to return, went elsewhere; after war broke out, the centers for Polish and Czech fighting units attracted some of their countrymen. Funds were raised, and offers received for permanent settlement from British Guiana, Northern Rhodesia, the Dominican Republic and the Philippine Islands. By August the Evian Committee had been concerned with the 150,000 Jews and non-Aryans who had left Germany in one year, investigation of possibilities for permanent settlement as well as removing refugees from temporary shelters, and the arrangement of a fund inside Germany enabling them to leave that country and Czechoslovakia and providing maintenance elsewhere. Cession by France to Turkey of the little republic of Hatay on June 21 created another problem of refugees, chiefly Armenians, and of the transfer of populations who preferred Syrian or Lebanon control to Turkish.

Transfer of Populations.

Emphasis upon racial considerations caused other migrations like the official transfer of populations in the South Tyrol, where a formal agreement on Oct. 21, 1939, between Germany and Italy provided for the moving of German citizens from the Alto Adige within three months without option. Persons possessing German blood but Italian citizenship might choose to remain; those who elected to go were allowed until the end of 1942 for completing arrangements, but all decisions must be definite and binding. It was estimated that some 10,000 persons would thus be compulsorily removed and that possibly 200,000 German-born inhabitants would by election be transferred. Little application of the principle of self-determination appeared in this exchange; the strategic location of the district immediately south of the Brenner Pass has made Italianization important to Italy; the German need for agricultural stock to supplement its labor force and for strengthening Italian support of the Axis furnished the motive for German acquiescence; the South Tyrolese people themselves and their interests received scanty consideration. During the summer other alien residents of the Italian Tyrol were ordered to leave immediately. Following Russia's encroachments on the Baltic states, large numbers of persons of German blood were hurriedly transferred by the German Government from Estonia and Latvia into the annexed Polish provinces. On Oct. 26 official statements in Berlin reported that German minorities in all countries were to be brought back to Germany and that the western part of Poland would be made available for settlement of some million and a half Germans from the Baltic states and elsewhere, chiefly in southeastern Europe. A general interchange of Germans, Ukrainians and White Russians was agreed to for the respective German and Russian parts of Poland, as well as the removal of Jews into the Jewish area around Lublin.

Jewish Problem.

The difficult lot of the Jews persisted. Hungary in May adopted rigid restrictions regarding Jewish participation in business, and in cultural and state institutions. On July 6 Germany established a Reich Jewish Association, requiring the membership of all German Jews to promote emigration and to be solely responsible for Jewish education and welfare work. The aim of National Socialism remained that of removing every single Jew from the Reich. To this end, German acquisition of part of Poland furnished a means for on Oct. 19 the decree constituting its future government provided for concentrating at least 3,000,000 Jews on the territory around Lublin with the intention of dispatching all Jews in Vienna, Germany, Bohemia and Moravia as soon as possible to this new Jewish state. This was proceeding during November at the rate of 200 a day. In the meantime conditions in Palestine had led the British Government to suspend immigration temporarily and to propose a limitation of immigrants in the next five years to approximately 75,000 in order to bring the Jews to one third of the total population, with later immigration only if the Arabs acquiesced. Jews widely condemned the proposal as denying them their right to return to Palestine as the Jewish national home. (See also JEWS.)

Appeasement Policies.

On the positive side of internationalism was the concern of the western world for avoidance of war and fidelity to pacific means of settling interstate disputes. It was a year of messages, broadcasts and exchanges of notes. Almost universal use of radio for spreading information and explanations, as well as for the widest possible dissemination of news, has laid the foundation for common sentiment, opinion and aspiration among peoples. The various appeals of President Roosevelt and of Pope Pius XII were notable. The peace moves of the sovereigns of Belgium and Holland and of the heads of the Scandinavian states, although fruitless temporarily, furnish evidence of international activity. The British Labor Party appealed to the German people for cooperation in establishing a friendly world. It published during November the basic principles for a lasting peace and its more concrete objectives in the war. At the second Inter-American Labor Conference, held in Havana at the end of November, the need was emphasized for labor's participation in a peace settlement based upon justice for all peoples. Of especial interest were the Christmas messages and broadcasts by leaders and spokesmen in different countries which disclosed a still unbridged gap in aims. Dissenting elements such as Hitlerism, bolshevism, anti-Christianism, democracy, imperialist capitalism, Lebensraum, cut across political alignments. The greatest hope appeared to rest upon the encouragement of 'a closer association between those in every part of the world — those in religion and those in government — who have a common purpose.' In general, peace aims look toward creating an international body with real authority over 'sovereign' states in political and economic affairs, recognition of the rights of all states to their own development, abolition of trade in armaments, unrestricted world trade and the reign of peace without revenge.

Aerial Bombings Protested.

Throughout the hostilities — in China, Spain, Poland, Finland — came frequent protests against aerial bombardment of civilian populations, especially from the United States and the League of Nations. Both the Allies and Germany declared, in answer to President Roosevelt's appeal, their intention of attacking only military objectives, and not women and children. The United States on Dec. 2 reiterated the American policy of wholeheartedly condemning unprovoked bombing and machine-gunning of civilian populations from the air and urged American manufacturers and exporters of airplane materials and aeronautical equipment not to sell such articles to obviously guilty nations.

Trade Treaties.

The United States continued its policy of economic internationalism to remove the economic causes of war. It made two new reciprocal trade agreements, with Turkey and Venezuela, and had three others under way, with Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. Proclaiming the pact with Czechoslovakia as impossible of fulfillment, President Roosevelt added to that area the countervailing duties of 25 per cent on German subsidized exports. The trade agreement with the United Kingdom came into force definitely on Dec. 24. Obviously the effect of the war has limited the benefits of the trade agreements in curtailing many exports and in increasing government trade controls in belligerent countries. Furthermore the renewal of the Trade Agreements Act has become a party and regional question. On July 26 the United States gave notice of its denunciation, as of Jan. 1940, of the 1911 treaty of commerce and navigation with Japan. This unprecedented action in American policy, based on political rather than economic considerations, left the country free to take action against Japan in protecting American interests in China with out danger of treaty violation. Towards both Japan and Russia, with which the trade agreement was prolonged August 5 for one year, there exists at the request of the State Department a moral embargo upon exports of particular use in war.

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.