The wreck of Europe = (L'Europa senza pace)

Front matter

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FRANCESCO NITTI

{L'EuTopa Senza Pace)

Preface To The American Edition

Scarcely had this book appeared in the Italian edition than it was translated and published in many languages and distributed in many editions. In Europe and in America it aroused both in parliaments and in the newspapers the most lively discussion. This reception proves but one thing : the ideas which the book contains, and they are those from which I have never departed even at the time when war hatred and national self-seeking were most widely prevalent, are making their way. They will prevail.

France received as a result of the war new territories, control of raw materials, new colonies and new organizations abroad ; Italy remains free within her own boundaries and has realized even if but partly and at very great price some of her national aspirations, yet both declare that they are not able to pay the debts contracted by them during the war. England herself has not yet been able to pay. On the other hand, Germany is not free; she is shackled and exhausts her remaining strength in the struggle against a hopeless financial situation. She has lost her fleet, her colonies, a large part of her raw materials, her commercial organization abroad. Furthermore she must at heavy cost maintain upon her own soil the Entente's army of occupation. The expense accounts that are still being charged up against her are not only an insult to the conquered; they are also a reflection on the right-

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mindedness and tlie honesty of the conquerors. But when nothing is more evident than Germany's insolvency we hear men discussing seriously the indemnities which the vanquished are to pay in order to reestablish the finances of the victors.

Perhaps, as has been shrewdly said, the debts contracted during the war will neither be paid nor canceled. On the one hand America can not persuade herself that her citizens should tax themselves heavily in order to contribute to this chaotic European situation in which violence rules supreme and in which questions of justice and right are daily trampled under foot. On the other hand the victorious countries of Europe have still a long way to go before they will find any improvement in their situation. But the truths which were erstwhile neglected and disregarded are daily forcing themselves upon our attention. Many intelligent men are beginning to be troubled by doubts. To be sure, there are still those who threaten and maintain the extreme position. They hold that there must be no departure from the treaties that have been made, and in the name of the rights of victory they defend the policy of ruin. The attention of the world, however, is being centered upon the question of the reconstruction of Europe as a vital necessity and as the condition of security for the victorious countries themselves.

Even Great Britain, which is the richest country of Europe, is paralyzed in all its activities as a result of the disappearance of her Russian trade and the virtual loss of her markets in Central Europe. In the memorandum of Lloyd George at the conference of Cannes there is the explicit statement that even the British people will be unable to prevent themselves from being drawn down into the general impoverishment if the system now in force as

PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION

a result of the Treaty of Versailles is not broken. There are in Great Britain about two million men out of work and the subsidies paid for the relief of the unemployed have in a single week surpassed two million pounds sterling. With his customary clear-headedness, Lloyd George has been willing to recognize the truths which I have proclaimed. He has recognized the impending disaster concerns both victors and vanquished. He has recognized the damage already done to European civilization which is headed toward a social and economic catastrophe. And since he realized that every month's delay means a frightful increase in human misery and threatens civilization itself, he decided to invite the governments of France and Italy to work together in close cooperation. This cooperation must aim at maintaining peace among the nations and at reducing national armaments, for, as the British Government has solemnly affirmed, only in this manner will Europe obtain that feeling of security which is necessary to the existence of civilized peoples.

Undoubtedly further conferences will follow that held in Washington, and it is necessary that the victors and the vanquished of to-day, forgetting their former antagonisms, meet together and discuss coolly the common dangers of the future.

The decisions which have been reached in recent months in nearly all parliaments, and the communications which I have received since the publication of my book from some of the most eminent statesmen of Europe and America, show that the truth is making its way. Furthermore many of the most illustrious and influential political figures in Europe, though they do not yet dare to shatter the illusion which still dominates the masses in many of the victorious countries, now no longer conceal the fact that

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henceforth the question of reconstruction interests almost to the same degree both the conquerors and the conquered. We shall not reestablish our finances, and what is more important, we shall have no assurance of safety, without a true peace ; and we shall not establish a true peace without a larger measure of justice. And this is the case since it is evident that to-day more than ever before problems that have to do with our financial prosperity are merely problems of justice and of peace.

The present volume — the first to be published in the United States — is a translation of the second revised and enlarged edition of Ex-premier Francesco Nitti's L'Europa Senza Pace. As a result of the discussion which the first edition aroused on the Continent and in England and because of changes in the rapidly shifting European situation, Signor Nitti has made a number of additions which are here for the first time offered for the consideration of the English reading public. For the translation of these newer sections the publishers wish to acknowledge their obligations to Christian Gauss, Professor of Modern Languages at Princeton University. Professor Gauss has also corrected and thoroughly revised the original translation, made in England and is happily responsible for the present volume's greater clarity as well as its substantial accuracy.

Contents

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I Europe Without Peace ..... 1

II The Peace Treaties and the Continuation OF THE War 24