If we took this homily out of its context we
shouki think it unexceptionable, but the reason of the recent disappointment with Sir Austen is that he has in effect taken sides. He has not seemed fairly to hold the balance between France and Germany. We say " seemed " because we have no doubt whatever that he earnestly desires an early evacuation of the Rhineland. It would be amazing, indeed, if he did not. Evacuation is the logical sequel to Locarno, and Locarno is Sir Austen's title to faMe. He has failed to present the British case satisfactorily to the world, not through any fault of intention, but through his habit of weaving webs of important-sounding and forbidding words—words that seem to say " Stand at a distance from these mysteries " —out of which an unequivocal policy seldom emerges.
