CANDIDLY BRUTAL

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 66, 25 September 1939, Page 8

CANDIDLY BRUTAL

3 914-1939 BELGIUM AND POLAND There are certain passages in Gre at "War history that irresistibly challenge comparison "with, what is happening at this very hour. Compare, 'for instance the Poland of to- | day with the Belgium of 1914. On August 5, 1914, in a letter written on a variety of subjects to the Comman-der-in-Chief of Austria-Hungary's fo; ees, Conrad von the German Commander-in-Chief Count Helmath von Mcll:ke t wrote: — Our advance in Belgium certainly is brutal, but ifor us it is a matter of life and death, and whoev?r stands in our way must take the consequences. Why did Moltke consider it a life and death matter warranting brutality? Because only through Belgium could he (in his own military estimate) deliver the lightning blow that was to overthrow France in six weeks and thus present to Britain and Europe an accomplished fact, carrying with it a short war and a victorious peace. Equally to-day, Nazi Germany, refusing negotiations and a'rJv tration has invaded Poland in a manner "certainly brutal," the idea again being a rapid victory and an accomplished fact (namely, a prostrate Poland) that will carrj* with it the same short Avar and victorious peace. Can Nazi Germany succccd? The answer is that the Polish nut is not 3*et cracked; and whether it is quick ly cracked or not. Britain prepares for a war lasting three 3'ears or longer. Exactl\- five weeks after he wrote as above to the Austrian Commnnder-in-Cliieif 1 , Moltke wrote to his wife (September 9, l\v which tip"" l Germany's Marne defeat was inevitable): Things have not gone well.. The fighting east of Paris has not gone in our favour, and we shall hav: to pa 3* for the damage we have done.

This time Moltkc was a true prophet. His is the first hint of the German reparations paid after - the Great War. But first r.f all the world had to pay ? with blood and tears and treasure, for four years of Avar followed Moltke's downfall. Where brutality sows, guilty and innocent alike reap. As it was in 1914, so now.