Page:Two Architects of New Europe – Masaryk and Beneš.pdf/17

Rh Central Europe hardly expect they will follow either to shed blood. These nations will see in France a leader as long as France does not desert the ideals which actuate them.

It has not been my purpose here to treat in detail the diplomacy of the moment in Central Europe, but rather to point out the ideals which actuate two powerful statesmen in that part of the world—ideals, which, it might be said, move in fact the entire nation. Much might be argued both good and bad about the bases on which these ideals must operate—I mean the treaties of St. Germain with Austria and Trianon with Hungary, and of Neuilly with Bulgaria and Riga with Russia. But to treat this phase of the question otherwise than in precise detail would be both unwise and unjust. Barring the unusual again, the chances are good that these treaties, modified here and there and supplemented with economic agreements of one sort or another, will stand.

If, then, I have correctly analyzed the ideals and motives of Masaryk and Beneš, the central question which this study has propounded should, it seems, be answered in the affirmative. They are qualified by ideals, by education, and by experience to rank among those to whom the reconstruction of Old Europe may be entrusted. One may disagree in details, but hardly in the grand perspective, which, after all, should be the safest measuring-rod. Today, Masaryk and Beneš belong not only among the pioneers of the New Europe that must be—if Europe is to remain at all a powerful factor in World politics—but they are, perhaps, its foremost leaders.