Evening Post. MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1938. TRAINING FOR NAZISM

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 135, 5 December 1938, Page 8

Evening Post. MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1938. TRAINING FOR NAZISM

In his speech at Reichenberg, Herr Hitler made a notable admission — that Germany is not 100 per cent. Nazi. The admission is the more notable when it is contrasted with the plebiscites which the Fuhrer has presented to the world as proofs of the united Germany for which he speaks. Now he admits that there has been opposition arid is opposition still. "I knew," he says, "I had to offend innumerable people by taking away something dear to them, namely, faith in their former idols." He admits also that the opposition is from both sides, from the people of the Left, who say: "You can call me an idiot, but I remain a Communist," and from those of the Right, who declare: "You cannot expect me to make contact with commoners; I am of noble descent" What is perhaps more surprising than the admission of differences within the Reich is the suggestion that the Fuhrer and the Nazis are now even prepared to tolerate such differences. The former claim that Social Democracy, once so powerful a force in Germany, had disappeared overnight, and that, miraculously, the Reich was'thinking as one man, or as a group with but a single thought, was so fantastic as to be unbelievable. Foreign opinion, and foreign observers, did not believe this. They were inclined rather to believe that Herr Hitler's successful reorganisation of German power had converted some, and that the others had been suppressed. Now the Fuhrer admits opposition, that the conversion is not complete, and that he does not hope to complete it in this generation. "I do not expect this of them," he says, apparently referring to the 'aristocratic Right, reluctant to join hands with commoners, "but they cannot expect me to despair of Germany's future. Let me say: 'Remain what you are. You are getting older, but after you youth is growing up.' " In line with this surprising admission of toleration is the admission that it was useless to rule* a section of the nation with bayonets, because the man power thus employed must be missing from the fighting forces abroad. What has caused Herr Hitler now to make these admissions, and to modify, even by a little, his earlier boasts of a Germany completely Nazified? It, is certainly not a belated realisation that neither concentration camps nor other coercive measures can achieve the regimentation he desires. It is not recognition of the signs, noted by foreign observers at the time of the Munich agreement, that the avoidance of war was hailed:with as great relief in Germany as in other parts of Europe. It is not a sign of waning confidence. More probably it is indicative of greater confidence in the measures for the Nazification of youth. The Nazi regime, like the Bolshevik regime, which it hates and yet in some respects so closely resembles, builds its strength upon two foundations: coercion of those who oppose, and eradication of future opposition by the training of youth in the totalitarian faith. Those who inherited other opinions from a period of greater freedom must not express or follow them; .those who come after are given no opportunity of acquiring a view which diverges from that sanctioned by authority. To this creed, what answer can the democracies give? They cannot copy suppression, censorship, mass control of opinion, or the other measures by which dictatorship is maintained. That would be the negation of democracy. They must somehow strive to improve upon the methods of dictatorship; by a wiser and wider education to secure by intelligent free will what the dictatorships obtain by coercion and the banning of free discussion. The aim must be that expressed by Lord Halifax shortly after the Munich agreement: We shall not substitute for this gospel of force what we think a better creed merely by catching the infection ourselves, by resigning ourselves for all time to nothing better than the

necessary attempt to meet force by| force, and letting go all hope of exorcising the evil spirits that torment and oppress the souls of men. The achievement of this aim demands a courageous spirit, ready to bear burdens and accept risks to keep alive the spirit of freedom. Britain is bearing the burden now in rearmament, and taking the risks by seeking first to test what can be achieved by voluntary methods. But democracy has not yet failed and will it now fail to answer the challenge of the totalitarian creed?