Wirarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1938. HITLER AS A MAN OF PEACE.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 October 1938, Page 4

Wirarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1938. HITLER AS A MAN OF PEACE.

1 + yyiTH the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia still in progress, Herr Hitler’s characterisation of himself, in his speech at Saarbrucken reported yesterday, as a national leader desiring peace above all things must be classed as a truly remarkable achievement in quick-change artistry. Wondering at this transformation, people of our own nation and others will yet hope that the Fuehrer s outline of intended policy is something more than a dream oi the moment and that he really means what he says in declaring that Germany only wants peace, that she seeks an understanding with everyone around her, that she has no wishes and no demands and wants peace in order that she may deal with great cultural tasks and economic problems. We may at all events be reasonably certain that Herr Hitler would not lack approval and support within his own nation in pursuing these aims and that in the extent to which they are pursued, prospects of establishing peace in Europe will become much brighter than they are today. Ilerr Hitler is very much astray in his professed belief that a change of government in Britain, bringing Messrs Anthony Eden, Duff-Cooper and Winston Churchill into power “would start a conflagration.” Those who have most outspokenly and vigorously criticised the policy pursued under Mr Chamberlain’s leadership are not less anxious than the British Prime Minister himself that the peace of Europe should be maintained. It is because they fear that Mr Chamberlain’s policy is undermining peace that, they have opposed it. Even these British critics, or some of them, have recognised freely that it is open, to Herr Hitler to make peace secure if he will. Writing, for instance, in 1935, Mr Winston Churchill said on this subject:— We cannot tell whether Hitler will be the man who will once again let loose upon the world another war in which civilisation will irretrievably succumb, or whether he will go down in history as the man who restored honour and peape of mind to the great Germanic nation and brought it back serene, helpful and strong, to the forefront of the European family circle. It can be regarded as nothing else than a figment of the Fuehrer’s imagination that the entry into power of Mr Churchill and others of his way of thinking “would start a conflagration. ’ ’ The glaring weakness of Herr Hitler’s speech at Saarbrucken, and the feature which made it; even at the most immediate view, somewhat unconvincing, was his petulant objection to “any tutorial interference from British statesmen,” and his complaint that: “Investiga-tions-by British statesmen or members of their House of Commons about the fate of German citizens in Germany are misplaced.” Investigation is not feared by a nation well or wisely ruled, or by its rulers, and such a nation and its rulers have their ample safeguards against “tutorial interference” by anybody. No other nation is seeking to rectify internal conditions in Germany, and it may be supposed that the Fuehrer had internal discontent rather than foreign, interference in mind in what he had to' say on this subject. He boasted of the unity of the German nation, but it is crediting him only with a measure of sanity to assume- that he must be aware'that a nation genuinely united does not need to maintain its.unity by means of crudely preposterous racial doctrines, concentration camps and organised terrorism. It is most certainly true, though not perhaps in the sense Ilerr Hitler intended, that Germany is confronted “with great cultural tasks and economic problems.” A narrow and perverted despotism must give place to more liberal and enlightened conditions of rule if the nation is again to enjoy normal health and to be capable of normal relationships with the rest of the world. Merely from an economic standpoint, Germany is faced by almost overwhelming problems, chiefly for the reason that since early in 1934 all other considerations and aims have been subordinated to the creation of an enormous military machine. Unemployment is virtually unknown in the Reich, but military demands have made such heavy calls both on labour and on raw materials, whether imported or home produced, that productive industry and export and import trade have been disastrously disorganised and standards of living have fallen substantially. It is vital to the wellbeing of the German people and perhaps also to the peace of Europe—since dictators are prone to seek in external adventure a means of diverting attention from internal problems that threaten to become overwhelming—that this misuse of resources and misdirection of energies should be corrected as expeditiously as possible. The complexity and difficulty of the task entailed may sufficiently account for Herr Hitler’s resentful criticism of foreign interest in Germany’s internal affairs.