Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1939. GERMANY’S WAR CHALLENGE.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 September 1939, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1939. GERMANY’S WAR CHALLENGE.

I?]jAGKANT aggression'by Germany in invading Poland lias resolved, to' all appearance finally and decisively, the grtnt suspense and tension in which the world lias lived ol late. Failing the immediate withdrawal of German to rce ® Poland which the British Government has'demanded, Britain and France are involved'in war and conflict, on the gieatesscale becomes inevitable.

The British Empire and the world are faced by an attempt on the part of the men now ruling Germany to make brute force paramount in the affairs of men and nations. Ihe action now tn ken by Gei’many is an attack on all Ireedom and a, menace to every nation determined to defend its liberty.

It may be hoped that the mingling of , trickery and overbearing arrogance and brutality in which the aggression oL the Nazi dictatorship against Poland has been developed will be condemned by all that is best in Germany, as well as nt other nations. The pretended presentation ol: demands which in tact were never delivered to Poland is in keeping with what has gone befoi-e. In any case, the stand and deliver tactics of the Nazi dictalorsiii]) can be met in only one way by the European democracies which are solemnly pledged to resist any further aggression.

There was nothing whatever to prevent the peaceable settlement by negotiation of the differences between Germany and Poland, had such a set!loment been desired by Germany. Some of the details of the German proposals reported yesterday, particularly the demilitarisation of.DanZig and Gdynia, with some adjacent territory, might well have formed part of a settlement, acceptable to all parties. As a whole, however, the proposals demanded nothing less than slavish submission to Germany by Poland and by the nations which are pledged to support her. Whatever the extent to which it lias been influenced by Nazi trickery, bad faith and deliberate aggression, the terrible outcome now revealed was inevitable in an\ cast* il Hitler’s sixteen points were intended to represent Germany’s last word.

W'ith Britain at war in her stand for justice and liberty and for the rights of small and great nations, there ean he no (pies! ion as to the position of this country or the course it must pursue. That the people of the Dominion will unitedly support Hie Mothci- Uountry in every'way open to them goes without saying. It becomes a matter of taking stock methodically of all available resources and turning- them to the best account that is possible in the tremendous emergency by which the Empire is confronted.

Defence and other measures aniioiineod meanlime by the Acting-Prime Aliiiistcr (Air. Fraser) obviously are only preliminary to the comprehensive orgaidsat ion of the national resources that now becomes essential.

The total demands of the situation as they affect New Zealand are fat:, as yet. from being fully defined. What ibis country is called upon to do, from a military standpoint and in other res]>eets, must depend largely on the course ol events in Europe. Apart, from questions of defence, it must be expected that far-reaching measures of economic adjustment will become necessary. The magnitude of the demands that will be made in this way and in others has yet to be disclosed, but it is sufficiently clear that the British Empire and its allies are called upon to cope with a vast and immensely critical emergency and that, a, tiim* ha's come when all individual and lesser interests must'be subordinated io the imperative necessity of safeguarding the very foundations of national life and liberty.

Whatever Ihe demands made upon them in this lime of catastrophe, New Zealanders will be of one mind in their determination loyally to support the* principles ol justice and freedom for which they stand. The people ol this country have noble traditions to uphold. It was never more necessary than now that they should do so with unquenchable courage and resolution.