DOMINATION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 October 1939, Page 9

DOMINATION

AMBITIONS OF HITLER AND STALIN DREAM CAN BE THWARTED. POSSIBILITY OF AMERICAN UNION. There need be no doubt that both Hitler and Stalin 'nurse individual drcams of ruling the world, states Clarence K. Street, author of “Union Now.” But the great danger both their dreams face is this: The stejjs they take to. realise them are likely, if successful, to drive the American Union into action to save in time its own dream —that of a world equally ruled by every individual in it in the interests of each individual's life, liberty and happiness. This American dream has —as 150 years of melting pot history have shown —a tremendous appeal for in ■ dividuals of every nationality and race. The dream of Stalin requires repeated purges even in Russia, while that of Hitler cannot possibly appeal to any but Germans—and by no means to all of them. These .two drcams can be achieved only by conquest and that takes time, especially for the waiting game that Stalin must rely on. Even for the ‘‘lightning war” method of Hitler, it will take years for him to reach Napoleon's peak. The American people can smash this dream of world domination (to say nothing of Stalin's lower-geared dream) in its early stages—if these early Hitler successes cause the American people to organise the democracies in a federal union. For the old democracies have got so much power that they need only to unite their common way of life to control the world's fate. They can win faster than can even lightning war. for they do not need to fight at all to win, they need only change their minds and unite—decide once more that it is wiser to hang together than to hang separately.

The Russo-German pact has this effect: It makes possible already the clean cut lineup of democracy on oneside and dictatorship on the other that was not possible oven in 1917, to say nothing of 1914. This could not have been possible had the plans for another alliance between Russia and Britain and France succeeded in 1939. The presence of Stalin on the democratic side would have made many Americans more reluctant than they are now to side actively with Britain and France (1.) because of aversion io Russian Communism and dictatorship and (2) because there would seem less need of helping the British and French. Certainly it is infinitely easier for the United States now to propose a federal union of democracies than it would have been to propose it to a Britain and France who were allied with Russia and in the midst of war. The situation thus still permits the possibility of a union of democracies being formed with relatively little bloodshed—and that means it still permits the possibility of the whole Hit-

lerian edifice being overthrown almost' as quickly as it was erected. The key to the situation is more than ever the United States. I expect the above developments —with Unionist help and guidance —to drive the American people rapidly toward Union. The anti-Hitler feeling in the United Stales will be increased by his success and the dangers it brings.

Though the democracies have lost Russia's weight against Herr Hitler, they have gained it effectively against the Japanese member of the triangle they hitherto faced. If the result is that the present Russo-Japanese hostilities develop into active Russian attack on Japan, or even big-scale Russian harassing of Japan, then temporarily, while this struggle lasts,, the British and American position in the Pacific, China and Dutch East Indies will be strengthened. Hitler tends to drive the United States to fill the vacuum on the side of democracy which Russia leaves. This is his greatest danger since American weight is far greater than Russian weight—and Hitler has not actively gained Russia’s weight but has simply deflected it away from himself and against his Japanese partner. All Hitler actively gains is the territory he conciuers in Poland and Middle Europe — and this is by no means all gain.

A combination between Stalin and the big European democracies could not possibly be more than an alliance, and a weak, uneasy one at that. But a combination between the United States and the European democracies can be something infinitely more powerful, not only because of the tremendous organised industrial power and wealth and air and naval power of the United States, but because its power can be joined to that of the other democracies not by alliance but through its leading them into a federal union—a far stronger type of inter-State combination than an alliance or league. And if the United States does this on the lines of "Union Now” by keeping the door open to outsiders —and particularly to the Germans, Italian. Cen ■ tral Europeans, and Russians —to join this Union whenever they restore their rights of individual freedom, this interdemocracy federal union becomes a disrupting force that attacks the Hitler Empire whore it is most vulnerable —from within, without war.

Hitler's Empire in Middle Europe is basically weak—and especially at the start—because it is based entirely on force. Germany can no move digest 30,000,000 Poles than she has been able to digest the Czechs.

Another weakness in the Hitler Empire is that many Germans over forty fear another general war. It is true that Hitler may succeed in overthrowing this by developing to the full the latent Napoleonic complex among the Germans. But for the next year or so. at. least, democracy, by playing its cards well along the lines of "Union Now." can reasonably hope Io undermine Hitler’s josition from within by making the most of the German fear and giving the Germans the Union alternative to it.

Success at each step for Hitler depends on swift action —getting his

whole Empire consolidated and its subject peoples riveted down before the American people form the democracies into a federal union open to a democratic Germany. Success for the democratic way of life depends similarly on swift action — on how swiftly the American people take the lead in its defence along the lines of "Union Now."