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CONFLICTING DOCTRINES IN CENTRAL EUROPE1

BY JULES SAUERWEIN

FRANCE, intent on Europe's stabilization, and Italy, hostile to every status quo, are predestined to have many a diplomatic set-to in the future. For a rigid maintenance of existing treaties is the first article of France's international creed, while Italy seeks to undermine treaties by private understandings with particular Powers.

Notwithstanding her nominal loyalty to the Versailles settlement, therefore, Italy is out on an eager quest for new political combinations. She varies her plan according as she is dealing with ex-enemy Powers, Powers, like Germany, Russia, or Hungary, who want to upset the present arrangements in Europe, or with Powers satisfied with the present situation but alarmed lest it be modified.

Rome's relations with Germany have passed through several phases. She has given her ambassadors at Berlin a rather free hand. At times these gentlemen have apparently encouraged that country to resist the terms of the Treaty. I do not believe for a moment, of course, newspaper reports emanating from Berlin to the effect that in 1923 General Capello offered to sell the Reichswehr arms with which to drive the French out of the Ruhr. That general is a flighty character, who is just now in jail on the charge of plotting to assassinate Mussolini. Besides, if Chancellor Cuno really wanted to attack us, it was not lack of arms that held him back.

Mussolini is instinctively an antiGerman. His recent speeches denouncing that country express personal animosity. His reference to German tourists 'dishonoring with their ugliness our Italian palaces' is not likely to be forgotten. I do not believe we shall see a close understanding between the two countries as long as he is Dictator. Nevertheless, responsible German papers are pointing out, apropos of certain of Mussolini's recent utterances, that Germany is the only country able to help Italy realize her colonial dreams. Just now each country distrusts the other, but should the Locarno compacts and Germany's proposed admission to the League come to naught, the two would be automatically drawn together, if only to reach an understanding regarding an ultimate Austro-German union.

That is a theme that naturally preoccupies il Duce, and he has thought out several ingenious solutions for the day when union can no longer be prevented. The most tempting is to partition Austria so as to give Italy additional territory in the Tyrol, the Yugoslavs a slice of Carniola and Carinthia, the Hungarians part of the Burgenland, and the Czechs an additional strip along their southern border. This plan has been dwelt upon in several papers, always with the idea that it is to be carried out under the auspices of Italy and without consulting France. Such schemes are evi

1 From Le Matin (Paris boulevard daily), dently designed to save the situation April 17

if it comes to the worst. We cannot

imagine that Italy would be either safe or comfortable, notwithstanding her prestige as arbiter, with Germany at her gates headed toward the Balkans and the Adriatic, and elbowing on three sides weaker Powers who had been presumptuous enough to incorporate millions of Germans within their boundaries.

Consequently the idea of partitioning Austria has been laid aside for the time being as something to consider as a last resort, and Mussolini is just now busy practising for the rôle of guardian angel to the Little Entente. He revealed this ambition during his late negotiations with Yugoslavia. That country's Foreign Minister, Mr. Ninčič, would have liked to get a security treaty guaranteed jointly by France and Italy. Such a treaty would help to stabilize Europe. But the Duce opposed it. He said to Belgrade, 'Either France or Italy, as you like, but not the two gether.'

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But mutual confidence is more important than treaties. The States created or enlarged by the Versailles Treaties, still anxious for their own future, instinctively turn toward the Power most vitally interested in preserving the stability of Europe as she is under those treaties. Italy's growing strength imposes on them, but her audacious dreams of expansion, fostered by a single ambitious individual, worry them.

In the Balkans Mussolini, true to his formula, is watching alertly for a chance to seize the wheel of fortune if it comes within his reach. We know how he has been dickering with Yugoslavia. Has he gone so far as to suggest partitioning Albania? Serbia already embraces so many races and territories that she can hardly be enthusiastic over such a project. Nevertheless, the Duce has just sent to Durazzo Baron

Aloysi, an aggressive diplomat who is not hunting for sinecures.

Rome's influence over General Pangalos, the Hellenic dictator, is very powerful. At the time when a conflict between England and Turkey seemed more imminent than at present, Sir Austen Chamberlain certainly showed some kindness toward Italy's ambitions in Asia Minor, and Mussolini exchanged views with Greece upon this subject. The Ægean Sea is a sphere where Italy, entrenched in her naval bases at Rhodes and Leros, pursues a policy of watchful waiting. She will not let an opportunity for action there escape her.

Furthermore, England and Italy have unquestionably reached some sort of agreement regarding their respective zones of influence in Abyssinia. Possibly their plans, which were at one time pretty far-reaching, have been amended somewhat for prudential reasons. Nevertheless they are of a character to call forth eventually a vigorous protest from Abyssinia, who, we must bear in mind, is now a member of the League of Nations.

I speak with less assurance of certain overtures between Italy and Moscow. Three years ago the Russians took the initiative in making proposals, and Mussolini committed himself to them pretty heavily. Since then Rome's attitude toward further negotiations has been favorable rather than the reverse.

So we see that, if Italy finds herself really pent in by what she calls the crystallization of Europe, her ruler is shrewdly seeking breaches in the wall that surrounds his country. Unhappily, that wall has only too many weak spots. Since we signed the Locarno Treaties someone has been spreading the idea in several European capitals that France is ready to betray her friends in return for a German alliance. She is being described as a ruined

country, rent with anarchy, and powerless to defend those who have trusted themselves to her protection. This propaganda is sometimes ascribed to Rome and it is sometimes attributed to other sources. So far as Italy is concerned, we can quite understand its motive, in view of what I have just

written. By visiting Tripoli with so much publicity, Mussolini wished to convey the impression that he and his countrymen are seeking a colonial empire. Consequently it is in the Mediterranean, and more particularly in North Africa, that his designs affect the interests of France.

'HANDY,' THE LAW OVER THE BORDER1

BY SIR JOHN MAFFEY

[THIS character sketch of Mr. E. C. Handyside, Commandant of the Frontier Constabulary on the Afghan border, who was shot dead last April while searching for outlaws in a frontier hamlet, is written by the former Chief Commissioner of the Northwest Frontier province. It portrays an instance where the white man's burden is no sinecure and where his service is by no means superfluous.]

WHEN we exchanged a parting smile and a grasp of the hand on Peshawar platform, in July 1923, I think we both realized that the end of a long association had come at last. After all, it was always extremely unlikely that 'Handy' would be alive in six months' time. And now he has been shot through the heart in a successful round-up of outlaws in a frontier village.

Evidently his scheme worked out according to plan. He would not mind death, but he would have hated a fiasco; and such was his genius, his flair, his own Handyside touch, that he was

1 From the Times (London Independent Conservative daily), April 20

never associated with fiasco, though in that wild borderland in which he worked 'the odds are on the cheaper man,' as we learn, year in, year out, to our bitter cost.

There was no doubt that Handyside had in him a call to the Frontier. Happily for the province, he pushed his way in, though he did not rightly belong there. I remember his first arrival in 1913, when I was serving in the Peshawar district, and he got his first chance. He knew nothing of Pathans then and not a word of Pashto. A puny tribe, the Khudukhel, beyond but adjacent to the borders of the Peshawar district, were sheltering criminals and refusing to pay up a fine. There was to be a nocturnal round-up by the Frontier Constabulary, and Handyside got the job. When we drew up our secret plans we did not realize what a tremendous recruit the Frontier had got in this enthusiastic débutant.

The round-up was a great success. Handyside and his men arrested the leading recalcitrants, captured more than enough Khudukhel cattle to pay the fine, and the Khudukhel ate humble

pie. But with the captive train there marched back the most dejected and pathetic Handyside. Not a shot had been fired! The tribesmen were the most miserable, contemptible, gutless set of rats! The whole fabric of his dreams had crumbled. These illusions did not last long, however, and in strenuous service on the Mahsud and Wazir borders Handyside learned that his dreams had been true, that the Pathan is a man, and the Frontier red in tooth and claw.

Most people are now familiar with the peculiar conditions prevailing on the Northwest Frontier that place such a heavy burden on those responsible for the maintenance of law and order. You have the long line of British districts, prosperous, policed, with good roads over the level plains, all the paraphernalia of Indian administration, irrigation, education, taxation. Alongside stretches the craggy starved borderland of the independent hill tribes, Mahsuds, Afridis, Orakzais, Wazirs, and so forth, of the same religion and the same race as the Pathans in the British districts, but outside the pale of law and order, fanatical, well armed, impoverished. The temptation to raid into the British districts is obvious. Equally obvious is the inducement offered to lawbreakers in the British districts to seek asylum across the border, whence they may still retain touch with their old homes. These outlaws are mostly desperate characters, but not necessarily so. They may have transgressed the law of the British district by playing a part, considered honorable in the society to which they belong, in prosecuting the family blood feuds common in our frontier districts.

But once across the border they must earn the hospitality they receive, and this they do by helping raiding gangs with information and guidance.

A vicious circle is established, and such a problem did the increasing number of outlaws present that the local administration was from time to time forced to hold 'Outlaw Conciliation Committees,' on whose recommendation outlaws were allowed back to their homes on easy terms. Naturally crime increased and the problem grew more grave instead of less grave.

An entire change of policy was necessary, and these details have been given in order to show the background against which Handyside worked and in order to emphasize the fact that he was an instrument, a wonderful instrument, of a definite policy, not a mere lucky opportunist in a losing game.

That policy was to strike at the roots of outlawry. No more conciliation. Let the outlaw do his worst, and we would do our worst. The pressure on tribes harboring outlaws was increased; the search for outlaws in their home villages was persistent; whenever possible they were combed out from the tribal area by nocturnal dashes of the Frontier Constabulary; the machinery was perfected to make raiding more hazardous; and every encouragement was given to our villages by generous rewards and a more liberal issue of arms.

As an instrument of this policy Handyside was a gift from high Heaven. But he could not succeed except where others had worked. It was not for him to prepare the ground or to sift the information, and he was most generous in recognizing the collaboration of the men who did this less spectacular work.

Handyside raised the morale of the Frontier Constabulary to such a point that we learned to expect success. In every enterprise he must be there himself. It was agony to him to learn that the Constabulary was unexpectedly out in Pezu when he was in Peshawar; and the Royal Air Force, which paid him

such a fine last tribute at his burial, was always sympathetic in hustling this restless spirit into the fighting line.

He was adored by his men. He had those gifts of humor and sympathy that win Pathan hearts, and with reckless courage he coupled extreme care in preparing his plans and deep regard for every other life but his own. His presence inspired the confidence that begets success, and, as his men came to regard him as a mascot, he tempted to be with them even on minor enterprises when he might well have stayed away. His last day's work was an example of this.

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For his friend the enemy he had the greatest admiration. A successful raider was a subject of high esteem and praise. Talking late into the night when the Viceory, Lord Reading, was paying his first visit to the Frontier and studying our various forms of turpitude, Handyside gave a list of notorious raiders, punctuated with comments of 'splendid fellow,' 'topping chap,' 'one of the best.' Lord Reading, much amused, drily remarked: 'Mr. Handyside, you must let me have your recommendations for the Birthday Honors list.'

All his preparatory work, when a definite coup had been planned, was most thorough and painstaking. Secrecy was terribly important, and he would indulge in the most wonderful camouflage of his plans, sending his luggage to Lahore with his bearer, ordering out companies on wild-goose chases, spreading ridiculous rumors often much to our amusement; but if success be the test, there was something in it, and the need for complicated camouflage was with him almost a superstition.

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He certainly was superstitious. We were very anxious to rout out a nest of outlaws from the Kabalkya country across the border. It seemed a promising proposition, but he did not like

it, and I did not press him. It ap peared that there was a shrine of much repute on the mountain pass guarding the tribal settlement, and he did not fancy the job on that account. So it was never done.

How he dug out the notorious Ibrahim from the Mullagori country, how he counter-raided the settlements of the Hathikhel all these things should be told. But the tale of one exploit must suffice. On a stormy night of January 1923 forty-one .303 rifles disappeared from a Government magazine in the heart of the Kohat cantonment. A hole in the wall was the only clue! It was indeed a most humiliating occurrence, and the Government of India had a good deal to say about it. But the curtain had fallen and we were left scratching our heads. Patience was necessary. It would not be easy to break up such a parcel of rifles, even across the border, without some news reaching us. But patience was not easy. At last a clue came and was most skillfully developed by our secret service. There was good reason to believe that the rifles lay in cold storage in the settlement of a notorious Bostikhel Afridi not far from Kohat and only a few miles across the border.

At last the plot was thick enough to bring in Handyside. It was a task after his own heart. The mise en scène was near Kohat, and obviously our blow could be delivered from Kohat. But Handyside would have none of it. Kohat must remain dead asleep. He would not even bring the necessary forces from the Frontier Constabulary lines in Peshawar. They should be moved at the last moment from Shabqadr, sixty miles away, and travel by motor lorries to a point within striking distance of the Bostikhel ravines. This wise proposal was accepted, and there is no need to go into the tangle of orders and rumors in

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