Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1938. CALLING HITLER’S BLUFF?

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 September 1938, Page 6

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1938. CALLING HITLER’S BLUFF?

JJEPEATING what a good many people have said in various places, an American visitor to this country observed the other day that Great Britain and France were primarily responsible for the present unrest in Europe because of their failure to “call Hitler’s bluff.” If they cared to reply to this indictment, Britain and France perhaps might plead in excuse that they were deserted by America in the field of peace. That apart, however, news received in late cablegrams yesterday suggests, for what it is worth, that Britain and France are no longer inclined to let “Hitler’s bluff,” if bluff it be, go uncalled.

Following hard upon a somewhat non-committal statement made by Sir John Simon on behalf of the British Government, this news is to the effect that in the event of a breakdown in the Runciman negotiations in Prague, Britain will “use all her influence and if necessary the full force at her command to line up all nations determined: to preserve peace.” It is suggested, though not stated in so many words, that Britain has instructed her Ambassador in Berlin (Sir Nevile Henderson) to declare her unswerving resolve not to allow a violent alteration of the Central European situation.

France, simultaneously, is reported to have informed Poland, Rumania and Yugoslavia of her obligations to Czechoslovakia and to have requested from them a definition of their position in the event of a German attack.

Assuming that Britain and France have gone so far, it can hardly be suggested that their action is unduly rash, or is calculated to increase harmfully the tension that already exists in Europe. The Sudeten problem undoubtedly can be settled by peaceful agreement unless Germany refuses to allow it to be settled in that way. A stand by the democracies against “a violent alteration of the Central European situation” will entail war only if Germany is determined in any case to pursue a policy, of aggression. If that is the position, however, the abandonment of Czechoslovakia to her fate presumably at best would only postpone the outbreak of a general European -war.

One important question to be determined concerns the amount of truth embodied in the conception summed up in the popular phrase “Calling Hitler’s bluff.” It has been said that the outcome of the present crisis depends on whether Hitler has become so emboldened by his triumphs that he is prepared to run risks immensely greater than he has taken heretofore. A number of leading British newspapers, commenting on the latest developments, have said that the decision rests with Herr Hitler.

Confidently as these assertions are made, they are not entirely convincing. As part and parcel of his achievement of political showmanship—a remarkable achievement of its kind—Hitler undoubtedly has done a great deal to make possible the reconstitution of the Prussian war machine as an element more than ever dominant in the German body politic. It is another thing altogether, however, to suppose that the Fuehrer is capable of controlling this machine now that it has been reconstituted. There is an unhappy alternative possibility that he may yet find himself in the position of the former Kaiser, who is reported to have declared, after the outbreak of the Great War, “I did not will it.”

Tn the condition to which Germany has been reduced by her camarilla of political spell-binders, autocratic officials, militarists and self-seeking industrial and financial magnates, questions of control and direction become supremely problematical. As Hitler himself has admitted and indeed proclaimed at times, modern war can only mean disaster to victor and vanquished alike. Yet the German nation, under Hitler’s leadership, has lent itself for years to a campaign of fiercely intensive military preparation and the fomenting of internal and external hatreds, with even the idealism of youth debased into material of reaction. Although a nervous dread of war is now said to be widely prevalent in Germany, it is at, best doubtful, in these circumstances, whether even Hitler, wonderful demagogue as he is, has, as one London commentator put it, “the power to silence those who would make mischief, to relieve the growing tension on the Continent, and to aid a settlement that would give the minorities in Czechoslovakia their full part in the life of the nation.”