ALWAYS A HITLER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 November 1939, Page 6

ALWAYS A HITLER

GERMAN LEADERS IN THE PAST. ■■Before Hitler, it was Kaiser Wilhelm 11, and before him it was Emperor Napoleon 111 of France,” says the ‘•Evening Standard.” “The British public felt just as bad about Napoleon 111 seventy-eight years ago as they do about. Adolf I, as the following extract shows.

‘‘lt appeared in ‘The Queen’ periodical dated September 7, 1861. “ ‘Widely different opinions may, no doubt, be held, and with much show o£ reason on all sides, about the probability of war between England and France. Many a steamboat excursionist, as he is borne past the Warrior at Greenhithe, and remember that the ironclad steamers of still greatei- offensive and defensive capabilities are in course of construction, exclaims in words which have now become a commonplace, that “the best way to avoid war is to be prepared for it": and for this there is, of course, something to be raid, though it might be truer to affirm that the best way to avoid war is to cultivate the arts of peace in a noble spirit, drop all forms of national braggadocio, and think as little about fighting as possible. “ ‘But, in the meantime, the idea of possible war between England and France is always cropping out in our journalism and our talk; and it must be confessed that there is excuse for it.

“ ‘lt is a portentous thing that the power to “begin it,” as children say in their quarrels, rests with one man in the neighbouring nation, and that that one man is at once the most inscrutable and the most unscrupulous of living sovereigns. “ ‘We are not advocates for an ignoble peace, or for stopping the national ear with cotton when the thunder of coming conflict begins to mutter in the distance. “ ‘For two great nations, however. Io get into a habit of “daring” each other to "come on" —and keeping up an expensive competition in warships and big guns, when there is no real cause of quarrel existing between them —is silly, as. well as wicked.’