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Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30, 1939. DEMOCRACY AND FASCISM.

WHATEVER fortune fate may hold in store for the world VV in the immediate future, there are certain facts relating to the contemporary life of nations which have and wi > to have overshadowing claims to attention. One 01. these lads is that democracy is a strong safeguard of peace and another is that Fascism, as it has developed m Italy, Germany and some other countries, is a creed under which nations are liable to b - plunged into war against all their inclinations and their will.

• These are truths, not only established, but thrown into high prominence in the present state of interna. lonal at n All the world knows that it is not by the will o people that war and devastation have been brought into immediate prospect. An overwhelming proportion 11 ; German people hate the thought of war as much as do tlioseo anv other nation. As against the conditions ruling m omtown British democracies and others, however—conditions in wind anv government attempting deliberately and with malice, make'war would be hurled immediately out ol office ; people of Germany are helpless. Under the comlnnation ol lying propaganda and gangster tyranny on which the Nazi dictatorship relies, a nation of eighty million sou s, jnehuhng those who have been absorbed in the Reich by the ihreat ol force, is made incapable of asserting and giving elied to its will. ' >

Given the opportunity, these eighty millions unquestionably would cast a decisive vote for peace. In the. conditions that exist in Germany, however, the will of the people, in the extent to which they have a will, counts for nothing. A. power is centred in the Nazi dictatorship, and particularly m one man of strangely perverted mind. It is because Hitler is in power in Germany and because Hitler plainly is incapable 01. payiim- anv enlightened or rational regard to the well are_ot Ins own nation and others that Europe and the world are threatened with a desolating catastrophe of war. The only'remedy really needed, if it could but be applied, is the employment ol a paiie] of alienists to deal with the man whom a great nation is so foolishly allowing to set at defiance every element ol good feeling and ordinary common sense.

The tragedy of the existing situation is that the armed German nation,‘under the regimentation of a. brutal and overbearing minority of ils number, apparently is.prepared still to yield obedience to the most outrageous arrogance and stupidity that ever paraded as statesmanship. With its admitted defects and shortcomings, democracy, at its present stage ol evolution in British and other countries, at least makes impossible any parallel to the tragic helplessness and subordination of the German nation.

At an immediate view, the issues at s'take between Geimany and Poland are trivial. Whether the present status of Danzig stands unchanged, or is altered in some way, is ol minor importance to the German people. It is by this time well understood, however, that what is really at stake is not the late 01. Danzig and of certain areas of Polish territory. What has to be determined is whether Nazi aggression is or is not to be allowed to extend indefinitely.

That is a-major issue, infinitely transcending in importance any question raised regarding Danzig or Poland. It is an issue affecting the fate and the existence of every free nation, ami indeed the fate and future ol\aU nations. The magnitude of this issue very completely justifies the grim determination manifested by British people throughout the Empire, and by the people of Eranee, that there shall be no further yielding to Nazi aggression and demands. The simple truth appeals to be stated bv the Labour “Daily Herald,” of London, in its declaration that: “Tn its determination to honour its pledges, even to the ultimate test of war, this nation is united as it has nevci been before.”

If the German people are incapable of overthrowing the Nazi tyranny, war may be inevitable. It cannot be emphasised too strongly, however, that only an assertion 01. the genuine desire and will of the German people is needed to make the thought of war fantastic. If the nations are doomed to engage in a murderous conflict in which, as the French Premier, IVL Daladier, has said, destruction and barbarity will be the surest, victors, it may at least be hoped that the fact will remain clearly on record that responsibility lor this appalling calamity rests solely on those who have exalted ruthless ferocity into a national creed, or have acquiesced tamely in that crime against humanity.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAITA19390830.2.14

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 August 1939, Page 4

Word count
Tapeke kupu
769

Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30, 1939. DEMOCRACY AND FASCISM. Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 August 1939, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30, 1939. DEMOCRACY AND FASCISM. Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 August 1939, Page 4

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