IT IS melancholy to observe how a section of the Press endeavours to perpetuate the hatreds of war time. It has been common ground to all statesmen that ultimately Germany must join the League of Nations if that institution is to function properly. In the Evening Standard of Monday an article of two columns by “A. A. B.”, under the title, “What is Lord Parmoor doing?” discusses Germany’s admission to the League as though it were a new idea that Lord Parmoor was attempting to realize in some underhand way. The writer dwells on Germany’s outrages on international law during the war and asks how we can trust her. Germany’s infractions of the Hague Convention, Germany’s crimes, were, we admit, horrible, but it cannot be said that other powers in this respect were entirely blameless, and if the English Jingo Press had had its way even we might have cut as bad a figure in history as Germany herself. But as the Evening Standard raised no objection to Turkey’s admission to the League of Nations in spite of her horrible atrocities in Armenia, its outburst of moral indignation against Germany does not impress us seriously. Besides, few can doubt that if Germany has grievously sinned she has been punished with undue severity, and to perpetuate this sentiment of hatred is only to create a peaceless Europe. We therefore trust that Germany’s admission to the League will be effected as a proper sequel to the London Convention.

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