tormented anxiety to destroy Germany we see her dread for the future—­more indeed than mere hatred.  To occupy with numerous troops the left bank of the Rhine and the bridgeheads is an act of vengeance; but in the vengeance there is also anxiety.  There are many in France who think that neither now nor after fifteen years must the territory of the vanquished be abandoned.  And so France maintains in effective force too large an army and nourishes too great a rancour.  And for this reason she helps the Poles in their unjustifiable attempt in Upper Silesia, will not allow the Germans of Austria to live, and seeks to provoke and facilitate all movements and political actions which can tend towards the dismemberment of Germany.  The British and the Italian viewpoints are essentially different.  France, which knows it can no longer count on the co-operation of Great Britain, of the United States, or of Italy, keeps on foot her numerous army, has allied herself with Belgium and Poland, and tries to suffocate Germany in a ring of iron.  The attempt is a vain one and destined to fail within a few years, inasmuch as France’s allies have no capacity for resistance.  Yet, all the same, her attempt derives from a feeling that is not only justifiable but just.

France had obtained at Paris, apart from the occupation of the left bank of the Rhine and all the military controls, two guaranteeing treaties from the United States and from Great Britain:  in case of unprovoked aggression on the part of Germany, Great Britain and the United States pledged themselves to defend France.  The British Parliament, as we have seen, approved the treaty provisionally on the similar approbation of the United States.  But as the latter has not approved the Treaty of Versailles, and has not even discussed the guarantee treaty, France has now no guarantee treaty.

If we are anxious to realize a peace politic two things are necessary: 

1.  That France has security, and that for twenty years at least Great Britain and Italy pledge themselves to defend her in case of aggression.

2.  That the measures for the disarmament of the conquered States be maintained, maybe with some tempering of their conditions, and that their execution and control be entrusted with the amplest powers to the League of Nations.

No one can think it unjust that the parties who provoked the War or those who have, if not the entire, at least the greatest share of responsibility, should be rendered for a certain time incapable.  The fall of the military caste in Germany and the formation of a democratic society will derive much help from the abolition, for a not too brief period of time, of the permanent army, and this will render possible, at no distant date, an effective reduction of the armaments in the victorious countries.

Great Britain has the moral duty to proffer a guarantee already spontaneously given.  Italy also must give such a guarantee if she wishes truly to contribute towards the peace of Europe.