Peaceless Europe

Peaceless Europe

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Peaceless Europe, by Francesco
Saverio Nitti This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost
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Title: Peaceless Europe
Author: Francesco Saverio Nitti
Release Date: November 15, 2003 [EBook #10090]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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PEACELESS EUROPE ***

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PEACELESS EUROPE
By
FRANCESCO S. NITTI

1922

PREFACE
In this book are embodied the ideas which, as a parliamentarian, as
head of the Italian Government, and as a writer, I have upheld with firm
conviction during the last few years.
I believe that Europe is threatened with decadence more owing to the
Peace Treaties than as a result of the War. She is in a state of daily
increasing decline, and the causes of dissatisfaction are growing apace.
Europe is still waiting for that peace which has not yet been definitely
concluded, and it is necessary that the public should be made aware that
the courses now being followed by the policy of the great victorious
States are perilous to the achievement of serious, lasting and useful
results. I believe that it is to the interest of France herself if I speak the
language of truth, as a sincere friend of France and a confirmed enemy
of German Imperialism. Not only did that Imperialism plunge Germany
into a sea of misery and suffering, covering her with the opprobrium of
having provoked the terrible War, or at least of having been mainly
responsible for it, but it has ruined for many years the productive effort
of the most cultured and industrious country in Europe.
Some time ago the ex-President of the French Republic, R. Poincaré,
after the San Remo Conference, à propos of certain differences of
opinion which had arisen between Lloyd George and myself on the one
hand and Millerand on the other, wrote as follows:
"Italy and England know what they owe to France, just as France
knows what she owes to them. They do not wish to part company with
us, nor do we with them. They recognize that they need us, as we have
need of them. Lloyd George and Nitti are statesmen too shrewd and
experienced not to understand that their greatest strength will always lie
in this fundamental axiom. On leaving San Remo for Rome or London
let them ask the opinion of the 'man in the street.' His reply will be:

'Avant tout, restez unis avec la France.'"
I believe that Lloyd George and I share the same cordial sentiments
toward France. We have gone through so much suffering and anxiety
together that it would be impossible to tear asunder links firmly welded
by common danger and pain. France will always remember with a
sympathetic glow that Italy was the first country which proclaimed her
neutrality, on August 2, 1914; without that proclamation the destinies
of the War might have taken a very different turn.
But the work of reconstruction in Europe is in the interest of France
herself. She has hated too deeply to render a sudden cessation of her
hate-storm possible, and the treaties have been begotten in rancour and
applied with violence. Even as the life of men, the life of peoples has
days of joy and days of grief: sunshine follows the storm. The whole
history of European peoples is one of alternate victories and defeats. It
is the business of civilization to create such conditions as will render
victory less brutal and defeat more bearable.
The recent treaties which regulate, or are supposed to regulate, the
relations among peoples are, as a matter of fact, nothing but a terrible
regress, the denial of all those principles which had been regarded as an
unalienable conquest of public right. President Wilson, by his League
of Nations, has been the most responsible factor in setting up barriers
between nations.
Christopher Columbus sailed from Europe hoping to land in India,
whereas he discovered America. President Wilson sailed from America
thinking that he was going to bring peace to Europe, but only
succeeded in bringing confusion and war.
However, we should judge him with the greatest indulgence, for his
intentions were undoubtedly sincere and honest.
France has more to gain than any other country in Europe by reverting
to those sound principles of democracy which formed her erstwhile
glory. We do not forget what we owe her, nor the noble spirit which
pervades some of her historic deeds. But noblesse oblige, and all the

more binding is her duty to respect tradition.
When France shall have