The Times FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1939. Pan-Germanism Runs Amok

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 302, 22 December 1939, Page 6

The Times FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1939. Pan-Germanism Runs Amok

Another painful impression will be created by a report that comes through l’aris that the Nazi Governor in Poland signed 300 death sentences on his lust visit to Warsaw. There is no reason to doubt this statement, for it is in keeping with the merciless rule in the temporarily conquered territories in Poland and Czechoslovakia. It is further stated that 6000 engineers, mechanics, chemists and doctors who refused employment in Poland are being scut into Germany, where the treatment they will receive may be left to the imagination. The intention of the Nazis is by sheer brutality to break the spirit of the peoples of the occupied territories, and if we may judge from the past this will -never bo done. Dr. Ripka, a distinguished Czech historian and publicist, discussing in his book, “Munich and After,” the invasion of his country, says: “Servitude was brutally imposed upon us. But our conscience is clear, and the Nation of Masaryk, though crushed by violence in saving its honour, preserves an undying hope for the future.” Discussing the aims of the old Pan-Germanism and of the Nazi Pan-Germanism, Dr. Ripka says they are absolutely identical, but there is a fundamental difference between the two movements. Whereas the Pan-Germanism of the days before the Great War and of the war period itself was confined to the ruling classes and the military, to-day the poison of Pan-Germanism has been introduced to the masses, and has fired the imagination of young people of every class. “The old Pan-Germanism was simply imperialist, whereas Nazi PanGermanism is not only imperialist, but also revolutionary, and is therefore more dangerous.”

Discussing the course of human evolution, Mr. Harold Nicolson, M.P., points out that the Greeks taught us the lesson of the liberated mind. The Romans taught us the sanctity of contract and the benefits of law. The Christians taught us the virtues of loving kindness and the hatred of cruelty. The ago of chivalry taught us tolerance and generous dealing. The French taught us the value of logic, taste and intellectual integrity. We ourselves have added to human evolution the conception of “decency,” of truthfulness, and of loyalty. These are the six great stages of advancement, which are denied and vilified by the Nazi philosophy. “Hitler and Ms disciples crush the liberated mind, they violate the sanctity of contract, they practise cruelty, they have no conception of generosity, they despise logic or intellectual consistency, they are disloyal and untrue.” This is a terrible indictment of Nazism under Hitler, but it is true. It emphasises the conditions which Hitler and his associates seek to impose on the world.

Miss Elizabeth Wiskcmann has written a notable book bearing on these points, entitled “Undeclared War,” in the course of which she says: “From January, 1933, to March, 1936, Hitler was engaged in consolidating the power he had grasped. From March, 1936, to March, 1939, he launched the first offensive in the undeclared war with racialism as its avowed motif. This first phase was so successful that in March, 1939, the rulers of Germany were ready to discard the racial cry and admit the imperialism to which they now hoped to reconcile the world by historical phrases, but chiefly appealing to the pacifism which they themselves so much despised. ’ ’ It was inevitable in the face of the Nazis’ arrogance and truculence, which became more pronounced with their successes, that the breaking point must come. To-day as a result we see the British Commonwealth of Free Nations and the people of France united in defence of spiritual magnitudes that it had been thought had been made safe by the heroisms and struggles of the centuries.