Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1939. PROBLEMS OF VICTORY.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 October 1939, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1939. PROBLEMS OF VICTORY.

FOR the sake of future peace and stability, it must be hoped that full thought will be given in the Allied countries, and not least in those of the British Empire, to considerations touched upon by Professor Anton de Haas, of the chair o. International Relations at Harvard University, m some observations reported in a cablegram from Boston yesterday, in effect, Professor de Haas suggested that Germany might be more dangerous to the Allies in defeat than she is now. lie suggestion is one it may be very imprudent to disregard. Professor de Haas, we are told, declared that Germany had already lost the war, and cautioned the Allies, m the event of victory, to avoid the errors of Versailles.

A bankrupt Germany (he said) would be a fertile groun for Communism. The Allies would find that with the defeat oi Germany they would be faced with a more disturbing problem. Russia would thereby be aided in establishing Communism throughout Germany. For this reason the conservatives, the middle classes and the industrialists hesitated to revolt against the. Nazis. He urged that the Allied peace aims should be to> otter Germany equality and. aid in solving her financial chaos, with t e ultimate goal of European co-operation to overcome economic problems.

The declared peace aims of the Allies are very much what Professor de Haas here recommends and it is supremely important that the measure of military success that may reasonably be anticipated by the Allies should not be made an excuse for altering these aims.

Britain and France are fighting, not in any predatory spirit, but to right the wrongs done to Czechoslovakia and Poland and to re-establish a reign of law in international affairs, lhe Allies have outlawed the Nazi dictatorship, but they have not outlawed Germany. On the contrary, they are inviting the Reich to overthrow its tyranny and to take a worthy place in the family of nations.

But for the fact that the German people are to a somewhat extraordinary degree lacking in political initiative, the wtu might be ended speedily with advantage to all the nations concerned. On its performance, the Nazi dictatorship, is entitled to nothing but condemnation and contempt.. Having brutally enslaved the German people in. furtherance of a policy of aggression, it has been successful only in developing artificial hatreds and in reproducing in these modern days the fantastic cruelties and horrors of the middle ages, or of more primitive times. In external policy, the Nazis have trampled ruthlessly on smaller and weaker nations, but in the stress of world conflict, for which they are responsible, their inept bungling is reducing their country rapidly to the status of a mere pawn in Russia’s hands;

A nation politically alert and active would find more than ample reasons in the state of affairs that exists today lor making an end forthwith of the Nazi regime. 'Unfortunately the political tendency of the Germans is to be submissive and more, probably, is to be feared from that tendency than from anything the German fighting forces are likely to accomplish, in such attacks as they are now making on the Western Front or in any other effort in furtherance of Nazi schemes.

However willing the Allies may be to oiler equitable and even generous peace terms to Germany, the possibility of reestablishing peace and stability in Europe depends and. must continue to depend largely upon the degree of initiative 01. which the German people are capable. The danger appears that because of their submissive spirit, the German people may continue to tolerate the Nazi regime, or some merely deceitful change which would make firm peace impossible, until they havt) been reduced in stress of war to a point of demoralisation and collapse. With affairs in that. state, the problem of reestablishing stable order in Europe evidently would be intensified terribly. The outlook is the more menacing in view of what Nazi policy -has already done towards placing Germany at the mercy of Soviet Russia.

BRITAIN AND PORTUGAL.

ATTEMPTS by the German propaganda agencies to create an impression in South America that Britain is dissatisfied with Hie Portuguese policy of neutrality and even that Britain is scheming for the overthrow of the Salazar regime have been denied promptly and emphatically in London, and there is not lhe slightest reason to doubt the complete sincerity of these denials. Much as they differ in political outlook and organisation, Britain and Portugal arc linked in a friendship of long standing—a friendship which has weathered storms in the past and no doubt will continue to do so.

The position has its peculiarities, for lhe present political regime in Portugal is frankly a dictatorship. It is almost as far, however, from being identified with the totalitarianism ol Germany and .Italy as it is with liberal democracy. A writer in the “Manchester Guardian” observed recently that if one compared Portugal with Austria. Poland. Rumania, Yugoslavia and so on, one found that the “dictatorship” of Dr Antonia de Olivera Salazar was probably the most humane and least oppressive of all.

Politicians who were exiled from Lisbon to the West African colonies would probably be angry at hearing this defence of Salazar (the writer added), but amongst the many dictatorships the Portuguese one seems to be the mildest .... The corporative constitution in Portugal differs from the Italian because it is not totalitarian. This is a dictatorship, but not on a totalitarian basis. People in the cafes still criticise and discuss the regime, and do not fear imprisonment for it. But public discussion of politics is prohibited, as it was in Austria.

Dr Salazar is a former professor of economics who was asked to put the national finances in order and has done il. Portugal at a recent dale could claim that she was one of 11m few conntries where free exchange still prevailed, without currency restrictions. Though he is Premier and dictator of the country, Dr Salazar lives in the simplest and most unostentatious fashion. Whatever may be the ultimate verdict on the corporative system he upholds and administers, he evidently is a man of estimable personal qualities. The situation of Portugal on lhe Atlantic and near the Straits of Gibraltar makes her. as the writer above quoted observed, an extremely important allv of Britain.