Evening Post TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 1939-1939-CHALLENGE TO DEMOCRACY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 1, 3 January 1939, Page 8

Evening Post TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 1939---1939-CHALLENGE TO DEMOCRACY

Anyone who tries to rjead the riddle of the international Complex will be forced to ask himself whether the peoples of t The democracies are equal to maiding voluntarily the sacrifices which lithe totalitarian peoples are making by compulsion. Figures vof rearmament 6utput take no heed of -whether industries are regimented l>y a totalitarian Government, or Aether they continue to be unionised after die democratic fashion. The figures speak with impartiality as to constitutional or class differences, and with complete indifference as to ideological issues. If, as the French Finance Minister (M. Reynaud) stated between Christmas and New Year, it takes France eighteen months, and Germany eight xinonths, to build a submarine, there is mo magic in the name democracy that will cancel out the margin of superior performance registered by German industry. Democracy cannot make good by faidi alone, but bgf faith and works —works', which may mean a lower standard of living;. The question is whether democratic peoples are^prepared to face it, Anyone who tries to read the riddle of the year or years ahead. Emust first hear that question answered. Industry and war are now so interlocked that a margin of superiority in industrial performance, in relation to armaments, is , itself a temptation to* the superior side to make war. No one has recognised this more readily than has Mr. Eden, who imore than once has emphasised that democrats must face the need of sacrifices if they are to avert or a.void the impending conflict, flfeither the Chamberlain Government, rror an Eden Government, nor a Labour Government, nor any other kind of British Government, could offer the people of the United Kingdom any alternative to meeting the totalitarian challenge of work and sacrifice. An American radicail newspaper states that the Daladfier decrees mean, for French workers, a longer working week and restriction of the right to strike; the decroes "lower freedom into its grav»e." But which freedom? The freeidom of the French individual worker, or the freedom of the French nation? Ii: the state of afßairs reflected by French submarine cwastruction lowers French national fajeedom into its grave, how shall .French individual freedom escape? jYet the cry of this radical newspaper lis plausible and may prevail. How 'shall the riddle of 1939 be read if democracy'^ conception of freedom stands in its own light? War is not inevitable, but can be made inevitable. It/can be made inevitable as much by what democracy does not do as by what totalitarianism does. Totalitarianism is definitely an opportunism that waits for democracy to t present an opportunity, but waits no longer than that. What better opportunity could have been presented for the German seizure of Austria than the Governmentless state of France, which nevertheless remains, even in December, in the condition pointed out by M. Reynaud? After the Abyssinia and China Wars, the Austrian seizure, and the Czech cessions, totalitarian policy cannot be called an unknown quantity^ The unknown quantity is the degree to which European democracies will react to the challenge. As if scenting the doubt and the, danger, American democratic leaders firmed rapidly in the closing months of 1938. In fact, democracy enters thd New Year with a new hope that a more resolute America will redress the balance that has been impaired by a weakened France, The Presidential, Ministerial, and Senatorial speeches in the United States and at Lima are perhaps the most hopeful legacy from the Old Year to the New. At the same time, this stronger Ameri» can tone reminds the world sharply of the reality of Europe's danger. How far can anyone look into a New Year when Mars rules the horoscope? This day last year we wrote:/ The war in China 3Sj&y drag on as the war in Spain has dragged on; but at present it seems that the year before us will decide the immediate fates of both Spain ahd China—<>r substitute for those wars a wider conflict, which no one desires. "The year before us" then, 1938, did not finish either the Spanish War or the War in China, but it hardly seems possible that either can last , another year unless one or both become absorbed in "a wider conflict." The fate of vast, historic China would be a matter of absorbing world interest if the Japanese power policy were not overshadowed, in Western eyes, by the power policies in Europe of Japan's Anti-Comintern Pact part-

ners. The European military peril not only obscures China, but half obscures the uncharted financial seas into which European economy is being forced. If civilisation were not obsessed by the threat that swells re-armament bills it would be paralysed with fear at the prospect of paying them. But the more immediate dangei expels the more remote. It is an ironical circumstance that

Nazi-Fascism aspires to cause a revolution in the thinking and in the life of mankind; but its most likely achievement is -a revolution in finance. Herr Hitler despises economics, but it may be that only in the economic field will he leave an indelible mark. In diis New Year, and perhaps early in it, the practicability of Mr. Chamberlain's appeasement policy will be further tested. Appeasement is not confined to tlie righting of grievances arising out of the Great War treaties; indeed, it is not confined to the righting of grievances arising out of any treaties. Appeasement could include new deals, and even hew territorial, redistributions, based on nothing more than new conceptions of mutual convenience and of the requirements of peace. In a peaceful diplomatic atmosphere, there would be nothing humiliating to anyone in mutual concessions by France and Italy in North and East Africa. What is causing Mediterranean adjustments to appear as an incitement to war instead of as a prop to peace is the atmosphere partly created by the Press clamour with which Italy launched unofficial or half-official claims against France /' . • and partly created by the international lawlessness which preceded the Italian demand and of which the Italian demand is belieVed to form an integral part. Today Germany threatens a weak State (Czechoslovakia) into cessions; tomorrow the Italian papers similarly threaten a strong State, France. It all looks^ like part -of a system of armed NaziFascist blackmail, humiliating to democracy. Can peace, be the objective of those who use such methods? There could be nothing more fatal to democracy than a totalitarian , practice of making democratic Governments pliant by first scaring their peoples with • war-threats and sabrerattling. But before democracy would submit to the establishment of such a practice, aimed at democracy's vital principle, there would be war. War may be avoided in 1939 if Nazi-Fascism abandons the methods of September-October, recognising their fatal, drift. But the only real insurance against the wider conflict is an acceptance of sacrifices by democrats, who must show an industrial and constructive ' energy equal to_that which the challenging countries exhibit. Totalitarianism will be appeased when its power to hit is equalled or exceeded. Appeasement may then proceed on regular diplomatic lines, uncramped, uncompelled, and free of the domii neering atmosphere that has almost wrecked Mr. Chamberlain's persistent campaign to lead civilisation out of the wilderness.