Little Entente

In the measures taken to save Austria from financial ruin Czechoslovakia had a large share, and did not hesitate to make sacrifices in the interests of mutual confidence. A like policy was followed by the Little Entente towards Hungary, despite the fact that it had been the nationalist elements of Hungary and their Habsburg sympathies that had brought the defensive alliance of the Little Entente into existence. The latter knew from the be ginning that correct and, as far as possible, friendly relations between it and Hungary were essential to the complete pacifica tion and consolidation of Central Europe. The States forming the Little Entente showed the best of good will in this respect, as is proved by the frequently repeated attempts of Czechoslovakia to negotiate with the Hungarian Government, from as early a date as 1921. If those attempts were unsuccessful, it was because Hungary sought by an adventurous policy to avoid an understand ing with her neighbours. Under the pressure of economic diffi culties, and later on under the influence of the peaceful tendencies in the European politics, especially of Locarno, Hungary in deed made several attempts at a Central European orientation and even concluded commercial treaties with her neighbours, but there was no immediate and permanent change, though this change would have been nowhere more welcomed than in the countries of the Little Entente, whose only wish is that the change be permanent so that a new Hungary, consolidated both economi cally and politically, may co-operate in the reconstruction of Central Europe.

Economic Policy.

The economic policy of the Little Entente starts from the conviction that in Central Europe it is necessary not only to overcome the harmful results of the depreciated cur rency, the obstacles to trade connections and the disturbances in the industrial world, but also to make up for the consequence of the disintegration of the old monarchy, which had constituted an economic whole. The basis of its economic policy, therefore, is the minimizing of these results by the earliest possible establish ment of commercial relations with each other and with the rest of the world. The political negotiations have therefore always been combined with economic negotiations, which have been the basis of a series of commercial treaties, at first between the States of the Little Entente and then with all the neighbouring countries. Questions of common interest to all the States springing from the former Austria-Hungary have been discussed with good results at special conferences, e.g., those at Rome and Portorose in 1921,

and, later, the special conferences dealing with passport, transport and other problems. The results of this economic co-operation have not of course been equally satisfactory in each of the States concerned, nor have they been enough in themselves to restore healthy conditions to those States whose economic, financial and currency difficulties left them with no alternative to calling in international financial help.

Expansion of the System.

The increased activity and the determined policy of the States forming the Little Entente have outgrown the limits of the simple defence treaties which consti tuted the original basis. On Aug. 31, 1922, that formal basis was considerably enlarged by the conclusion of a new treaty, in the second article of which both Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia rec ognized the treaties concluded by Czechoslovakia with Rumania, Austria and Poland on the one hand, and by Yugoslavia with Rumania and Italy on the other. In the third article both parties agreed to put their economic, financial and transport relations on a firm basis by co-operation ; and finally in a further article they undertook to support one another in their international, political and diplomatic relations and to take common measures if their common interests should be threatened.

The principles incorporated in that treaty reveal both the spirit underlying the Little Entente and the basis of its future activity.

Emphasis is laid on the importance of economic co-operation and of solidarity in international affairs; the periodical renewal and extension of the existing system of commercial treaties, together with the ever-increasing moral weight of the Little Entente in the councils of Europe, prove that the statesmen of the Little Entente have a firm grasp of both political and economic realities.

At international conferences, such as those of the League of Na tions, the representatives of the Little Entente have regularly spoken as one man, and have therefore contributed to a consider able simplification of international relatiOns ; their behaviour is particularly noteworthy in that it is not only of a united but of a pacifist character. The future aim of the Little Entente will be still further to promote the pacification and the consolidation of Central Europe. (See also CZECHOSLOVAKIA; EUROPE; RU