Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, AUGUST 29. 1939. AN UNCERTAIN RESPITE.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 August 1939, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, AUGUST 29. 1939. AN UNCERTAIN RESPITE.

’THERE is no evidence at time of writing' that any progress Ims been made in negotiations lad ween the democracies and Herr Hitler over Hie fate of Poland. 'From Paris it is reported in definite terms that Hie Fuehrer rejected I\l. Daladier s proposals for direct negotiations between Germany and 1 oland and that in doing so he said: “I wish to make it clear, that Danzig and the Corridor must be returned to the .Keich.’' These demands invite war and if they are insisted upon will make it inevitable. Not only is Poland resolved to resist niiy such settlement, but, Britain and France are pledged to vivo her full military support if Germany seeks to settle the Danzig question by force or attacks Polish independence. Some adjustments may be possible, but the unconditional surrender of Danzig and the Corridor would place Poland completely at Germany’s mercy and could be expected to lead to nothing else than a repetition in Poland’s case ol the story of Czechoslovakia. ( . . If Poland is to have any prospect of security, and indeed of continued existence, she must lie assured 01. unimpeded access to the Baltic Sea. through Danzig or Gdynia, or both, and her right to that access must be the subject of firm international guarantees.. .Even if a settlement in other respects acceptable were reached, it would be worthless if its maintenance depended 10 any vital extent on the good faith of the Nazi dictatorship. It has been demonstrated conclusively that with Herr Hitler at the head of affairs in Germany, German promises are worthless. The principal (piestion at stake seems to be whether JI err Hitler is in a position to lead his own nation and others into war. On that (piestion there is no dependable information. Some authorities are of opinion that Hie German people are so regimented and controlled under the Nazi dictatorship that they will undoubtedly tight at its behest if they are called upon to do so. Yet some signs of acute strain in the German nation have become apparent at times, notably in and after Hie critical days of last September. Konrad Ileiden wrote of that occasion that a war could hardly have been less popular than the one that might have had to be fought for the Sudeten land, but that “one cannot doubt that the German people would have fought if Hitler had given the word.” The emotional crisis, he added, did not set in till after the victory had been won with such apparent brilliance; it came first from the terrifying recognition of how close the danger had been, and secondly from a comparison of the greatness of the danger with the chances of success and the value of what was gained. In popular terms, the Germans had just escaped a war. had risked destruction, and then spent their Christmas without butter. Still more serious was the knowledge that, in spite of the Munich peace, half a million “slaves”—for such is the expression current in Germany—were compelled to go on working at the Western fortifications, and the danger of war still persisted. Much depends on whether the feelings then awakened in the minds of the German people have been dulled or have been intensified. There haVe been some suggestions in recent news reports that the tide of anti-war feeling is running strongly in Germany. A message from Copenhagen states that a Danish woman, on her arrival there from Berlin, reported a series of anti-war demonstrations. In Poland reports have been broadcast of an organised attempt on the life ol' Hie Fuehrer —an attempt in which military members of the Reichstag and some members of the Nazi Party were involved. There are no means at the moment of testing the reliability of reports of this kind, and much the same applies to some suggestive indications that Italy is increasingly reluctant to be dragged into a war at Germany’s heels. The fateful issue now in the balance may well turn, however, upon the ability of the people of Germany and the people of Italy to perceive in time the nature of the catastrophe into which they are being led. ARRIVAL OF THE AOTEAROA. EVEN in Hie attendant circumstances of an overshadowing threat of world war, the arrival of the flying-boat. Aotearoa at Auckland yesterday, on the completion of her delivery flight from England, is an event to stir the imagination of New Zealanders. Only a few years ago, the establishment of regular air services across the Tasman was a. rather vague aspiration. Thanks to the gallant enterprise of air pioneers and the courage and efficiency with which their lead has been followed, these services are on the point of becoming an accomplished fact. Yesterday, the Aotearoa crossed from Sydney to Auckland in eight hours ami three minutes, and completed a journey from England to New Zealand in twelve days. This cutting down ol distance, for that in effect is what it is, is bound as time goes on to bring Australia and New Zealand into very much closer and more intimate contact than is possible even with sea racers like the Awatea making swift journeys between New Zealand and I lie Commonwealth. 'faking account also of the development of air services up and down the I’acilu —the enterprise now again being developed by Pan-American Airways no doubt will soon be emulated by British air lines —it is clear that swift, air travel will open up a new world of opportunities. It will bring also some dangers, of which the greatest is that. an. increasing facility of fast travel over ocean distances may be turned to evil account, in war. Nowhere more obviously than in the case of air travel does scientific progress impose new tests on man’s ability to make worthy use of enlarged and expanding powers. For weal or woe, the arrival of the Aotearoa, bringing info near prospect the establishment of regular air services over the Tasman and linking tin* Dominion with air services encircling the globe, fakes its place with historic events like the arrival of the first canoes, the voyages of Tasman and Cook and the arrival of the first emigrant ships, 'file Aotearoa is in a definite sense, and without, prejudice to the fame of a series of gallant, adventurers of the air, the pioneer of a new era in the history of New Zealand. RUSSIAN AID REJECTED? ACCORDING to a statement by Marshal Voroshilov, Soviet Commissary for Defence, reported in one of yesterday’s cablegrams, the. negotiations between the democracies and Russia for a defensive alliance broke down because Poland refused to agree to allow Russian troops to traverse her territory in the event of war, and was supported in that attitude by France and Britain. In the conditions thus laid down—assuming that the position of Poland and the ..democracies has been staled correctly by Ihe Soviet Minister—the opening of the negotiations with Russia appears to have been a waste of t hue. Poland no doubt has some reason for regarding Russia with suspicion, but unless she was prepared to trust her as a member of tin* peace front, it was evidently useless to look' to her for aid. In the event of German aggression, it is not easy to see how Stales like Poland, or Rumania, can survive unless they are given effective military assistance in their own territory. Their only hope otherwise apparently would be in Germany being so heavily engaged elsewhere as to be unable to spare, more than an inconsiderable fraction of her forces Io operate against them. While tin* negotiations with the Soviet were still in progress it was no doubt assumed by a great many people that Russia’s pari, in the event of war provoked by aggression would lie Io give direct military assistance Io any contiguous country invaded by the aggressor, and not least Io those countries Io which Britain and France had given guarantees. If this was not the pari allotted to Russia, if is difficult Io imagine what she was supposed Io do in discharging her obligations as a member of the peace front. Unless some now light can be thrown upon Hie position, it would appear that the negotiations which were dragged out so mnprolrlably were opened in conditions which could not have been expected to lead to anything else than a hopeless deadlock.