NOT DIRECTED AGAINST ENGLAND

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 357, 11 February 1937, Page 3

NOT DIRECTED AGAINST ENGLAND

GERMAN-JAPANESE ANTI-CGMMUNIST AGREEMENT BRITAIN CONSIDERED TO BE BLIND TO COMMUNIST MENACE.

Herr von Ribbentrop, the German ■ Ambassador in London, was recently ; instructed by Herr Hitler to inform i Air Eden at once that the German ! Japanese anti-Communist Agreement j is not directed in any way against | British interests, says the Berlin j correspondent of “The Observer,’’ London. The Chancellor, it is understood, | was rather etartled by the extremely | unfavourable reception of the agree- ■ ment by official quarters in London, and on .the advice of Herr von r Ribbentrop ordered German publicity j of the pact to cease until further notice. With striking suddenness, there- j considering its vital importance, I tIW agreement was banished from the German Press, where reverberations to world reaction had been echoing for almost three days. Dr Goebbels’ anti-Comintern speech, when he announced the ( “flighting parole’’—“Europe Awake” i —has been succeeded by a remark- ! able silence in strange contrast to the Nazi clamour which surrounded . the Propaganda Minister’s anti- I Communist fanfare. As far as this agreement is con- ' cerned the powerful Nazi propaganda [ machine, which was preparing to use . it as a pretext for another anti-Soviet i campaign, has shut But although the German public, which has not had proper time to examine the agreement, is not being invited to pursue its inquiries, the permanent officials? of the Foreign Office are watching keenly what is going to happen to Herr von Ribbentrop’s mission of creating an AngloGerman understanding. In official quarters it is feared that the agreement hae ! done damage to relations , with Britain. The rejection by both the British Press and the British Government of an agreement which splits the world into tw T o groups of Powers can hard- < ly have surprised intelligent Germans who have followed recent I speeches made by the British Foreign Secretary, all carefuWy reported in Berlin.

Duel Aim. . England is the key country in Herr Hitler’s anti-Bolshevist crusade. To i bring about an understanding with ' Great Britain and at the same time j to enrol her under the anti-Bolshevist i banner would be a dual triumph overshadowing all the Chancellor’s achievements in the foreign field. At the same time it would mark I the success of those two aims an- . nounced in “Mein Kampf”—namely, ; friendship with Britain and enmity : with Soviet Russia. As England , shows no signs of allowing herself ! to be drawn into this path, the Geri man Press has attacked her for in- ' difference. | The “Hamburger Fremdenblatt” : sums up the German attitude toward I the British rejection in picturesque [fashion: “In England, it is the satiated consciousness of the island ' dweller which still hugs the illusion i that the destructive spirit of the I Communist International can never ' break on the coast of Britain.’’ | The leading economic journal, “Deutsche Volkswirt,” writes: “The non-Communistic world, as we all know, if not blind to the Communist danger, is at least deaf. Must it first come to bloody conflicts*, in London, Liverpool and Glasgow? Must the churches in France and Poland first burn before it is seen that Communism is the only world danger? “In England, with over-emphasised energy, they withdraw above all from the division of Europe into two fronts. They will not hear of a conflict of ideologies. What do such words mean in view of the terrible conflict in Spain?’’ All German comment points' out that Europe is already divided into two groups: Those nations on trie side of order and those nations who favour and encourage anarchy. Much stress has been placed on the fatet that, official quarters in Britain reject the theory, accepted in many places, of secret military ! clauses being inserted in the agreement with Japan, and great pains have been taken to distinguish the character of the agreement from the Franco-Soviet Pact. Although military co-operation is

the logical outcome of this GermanJapanese agreement, German papers were ordered to deny such an idea strenuously. But it muft be pointed out that as secret military agreements are kept, secret, and as the penalty in Germany for disclosing State secrets is death, it is impossible for observers in Germany to do more than speculate on the precise degree of military co-operation between Berlin and Tokio. The reported enthusiasm for the agreement of the Japanese military leaders gives' much food for thought.