Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1938. SCARES AND FAULT=FINDING.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 December 1938, Page 6

Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1938. SCARES AND FAULT=FINDING.

JX his address at the break-up ceremony of St Matthew's School, Professor G. W. Von Zedlitz had something' to say about alleged scaremongering by the newspaper Press. This in'itself calls for little attention. In this country and in most parts of the British Empire, the newspaper Press has a standing and reputation which enable it to ignore, or leave to answer itself, ill-considered and unsupported criticism, from whatever quarter it may come.

There were other aspects of the address of Professor Von Zedlitz, however, which cannot thus lightly be passed over. He not only made the sufficiently preposterous charge that the newspaper Press was in the habit, for the sake of profit, of working up bogus war scares, but implied plainly that no reason existed for being nervous about the present state of the world. He spoke also of a state of fear which obtained in Great Britain during the recent crisis “while the Continent was quite calm.”

This can only be described as a ridiculously prejudiced and'inaccurate account of the crisis that centred recently on Czechoslovakia and of the state of affairs ruling in Europe today. It is hardly necessary to go past the speeches of Herr Hitler for a convincing refutation of what Professor Von Zedlitz had to say on these subjects. Certainly the speeches and writings of the Fuehrer and his associates will, make the refutation overwhelming and complete. People may imagine for themselves, too, the “calm” that reigned in Czechoslovakia on the eve of the dismemberment of that ill-starred little country, or in Austria at a somewhat earlier date and since Ihe hand of Nazi tyranny has been laid upon its people.

If fears of war in Europe are the outcome only of invented scares, then not only the newspaper Press but the responsible statesmen of most European countries, and particularly the present British Prime Minister (Mr Neville Chamberlain) and his colleagues, must be accused of combining in this strange conspiracy. Mr Chamberlain and other leading members of the British Cabinet have affirmed emphatically that Avar was averted recently by a narrow margin, that unsparing efforts must still be made for peace, and that Britain meantime, for the sake of her own security and that of world democracy, must concentrate her resources ungrudgingly on rearmament.

Only yesterday a speech by Mr Chamberlain was reported in which he invited German statesmen to reflect upon the possible consequences of conflict, “if ever a conflict should arise between our two countries.” Are we to believe that the British Prime Alinister speaks in terms like these merely to provide material for newspaper scaremongering? For those who wish to face the facts there is ample and unimpeachable evidence of the extent to which the German people, yielding submissively to a peculiar gangster tyranny, have allowed themselves to be converted into a vast military machine. As to Nazi aims and methods, these have been demonstrated sufficiently in actions and in threats, and never more impressively than in recent months.

Professor Von Zedlitz appeared to wish to raise doubts, in some vague fashion, as to the persecution of the Jews in Germany, which now includes Austria. Here, again, the facts of pogrom, expulsion and spoliation are very clearly established. The leading nations of Europe and the United Slates are combining in measures to assist and relieve the hosts of unfortunates whom Nazi Germany has decided to despoil and cast out. Expressions of doubt will not dispose of the appalling facts of the martvrdom of the German Jews.

In this country we stand for freedom of speech, but that certainly does not imply that an address like that delivered by Professor Von Zedlitz on Thursday evening should pass unchallenged, particularly when it’is delivered to an audience consisting partly of young people of impressionable age.