Lamont on Peace

Not only did King Edward predict Peace in Europe last week (see p. 20) but at No. 23 Wall Street the doors of J. P. Morgan & Co. opened to receive reporters who had arrived by unprecedented invitation to interview Partner Thomas William Lamont on the state of Europe, from which he had just returned. The Lamont pronouncement on Peace which followed easily ranked with the recent Lindbergh pronouncement on War, in which the airman, who married a onetime Morgan partner's daughter, voiced his apprehension of a major European conflict with Death raining from the skies (TIME, Aug. 3).

Lamont on Peace: "I have no firsthand knowledge, but in the three weeks I spent in England and France the people struck me as far less apprehensive than many Americans are of an early outbreak of war in Europe. You see, although we are 3,000 miles away, our able American press supplies us every morning with reports of interesting occurrences in every capital of Europe. And we are so impressed with the bad side of the news that we are apt to forget the peace-loving millions in their homes and fields and factories, and to leap a few hurdles and exclaim: 'Oh, Europe is on the verge of another great war.'

"No one would wish for a moment to minimize the immense difficulties in which the world finds itself today. But that they must eventuate in a general war is hardly a justifiable conclusion.

"Therefore, while it is true that in many directions democracy is selling at a heavy discount, nevertheless, I am one of those who believe that the men who rule the destinies of Europe will go very slowly in dragging their unwilling peoples into a major conflict.

"Oh, no! with every appreciation of the incalculable perplexities of conditions over there, I am not expecting a general war. London is still the world's financial centre. The London markets for money and investments are steady and firm, and their attitude furnished considerable reassurance at least. . . . Germany is determined to keep away from serious trouble with Great Britain and France.

"Through the new German-Austrian treaty, Germany has renounced at least for the present, any ambition to absorb Austria. It is clear that Russia, even though credited in some quarters with being ready enough to see trouble elsewhere, is not believed to have any provocative plans on the West or on the East.

"With the raising of sanctions, there has seemed to come a vigorous revival of efforts for appeasement. This is evident on many sides. The inspired Italian press is encouraging a renewal of Italy's traditional friendly relations with Great Britain. The British have withdrawn in good part their Mediterranean fleet in response to the Italian gesture, and they have supported France in various Continental moves for better understanding, such as

Locarno and neutrality toward Spain.

"Germany and Italy have accepted invitations to a renewed Locarno conference. Not least important have been the concessions made by Great Britain in concluding a new treaty of amity with Egypt.

"As to the League of Nations, there is every disposition to try to build for the future. Its leading members recognize philosophically, even though with regret and some humiliation, that you cannot have collective action if many of the great powers are collectively not present. This business of attempting to boycott, coerce and punish whole nations of scores of millions of proud peoples may have read well on paper, but to make it even half way work against a major power requires practical unanimity among all the other great nations of the earth. And that does not seem attainable.

"It is easy for us in America, happily secure from foreign aggression, safe in our own enormous resources, to criticize the peoples of the Old World, and to say that their statesmanship has gone bankrupt. But, as I have indicated, I am not prepared to adopt such a view. ... I may be too much influenced by my horror of war and my hope of peace. But I do hope and trust and believe that Europe will keep the peace."

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