Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY. APRIL 9. 1940. THE FUTURE OF GERMANY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 April 1940, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY. APRIL 9. 1940. THE FUTURE OF GERMANY

TN some passages of the noteworthy interview in which he stated that the Allies would welcome a German attack, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (General Sir Edmund Ironside) touched on questions that were political as well as military. Declaring, for instance, that the Allies were not. going to live in a world dominated by constant threats ol war and pillage, and were “determined to end this aggression and oppression for all time,’’ he added: — Wo do not for a moment think Hitler is our only enemy, it is the spirit of Hitlerism that must be crushed. We are not deluded with any idea that if Hitler goes a peace can be made easily. As long as the German Army is intact mere win always be danger. Not one only, but a scries of interesting ami important questions is here involved. There is nothing the Allies are more obviously called upon to guard against than some merely deceptive change in the Nazi dictatorship, by the removal ol Hitler and in other ways. Some such device as this might well be tried by the Nazis and by the forces behind them as a means of gaining relief from their present difficulties, and time and opportunity in which to prepare lor now attacks on peaceful nations. It is necessary that the Allies should not only be ready to deal promptly and effectively with any* trickery ol that kind, but should, have dear ideas as to the conditions in which it will be possible eventually to make peace with Germany: That question is entitled, to serious attention even at a time when a terrible death-grapple ol fighting l.orees may, be imminent on the Western Front or elsewhere. It is part ol an effective war-effort that the Allies should be able to perceive and to define their ultimate objective. As to the possibilities of ultimate peace with Germany—that is to say of secure and dependable peace—some extraordinarily opposed ideas are current. One view, which has gained wide expression, is that “the beauties of democracy have ho attraction for the overwhelming majority of Germans” and that the people of the Reich have accepted contentedly the regimentation of National Socialism ami will be loyal to it in war and peace. One exponent of this theory wrote recently that when the modern generation in Germany remembers the terrible days of inflation ami starvation for the masses, which were also the days of untold wealth for profiteers, and the later days of the. 6,000,000 unemployed, it also remembers that those were the days of democratic government. On the basis alone of choosing -the lesser of two evils (he added), modern Germany would choose Nazism in preference to democracy. Add to this the fact that the “lesser evil" is to that modern Germany not an evil but something that responds to an almost religious craving; something that represents in daily life the constant repetition on a smaller scale of the act of creation. Add, too, that the Nazi Government has not failed to point out to its people every shortcoming of the democratic regime in other countries. When you have clone all that you will begin to perceive the hold Nazism has on modern Germany and you can answer for yourself that the German hatred and execration for the whole institution of democracy is as genuine and as deep as democratic hatred of Nazism. H is a relief to turn from this unbalanced assertion of.unrealities, not. only to a saner estimate of the issues raised in the present war, but to some of the leading facts of German history. Answering the charge that “the German people are not competent to govern themselves in democratic forms: the Weimar Republic has proved it’’—a German, Rudolf Olden, writing not long ago in the “Manchester Guardian,” said: — I am not impressed by this argument. The French needed a hundred years to place their republic on a firm foundation. In those hundred years they lost the republic twice, and several times it was in great danger. Have not we Germans the right to a period of apprenticeship, with its mistakes and their instructive penalties? During the last century and .a half, Herr Olden went on to contend, there has been, no relaxation- of the pressure lor democracy in Germany. That pressure made itself felt in Bismarck’s day and in the years that followed the struggle for democracy was continued by parties under various names — Catholic, Liberal and .Socialist democrats, moderate and radical. These parties (said Herr Olden) have been struggling for democracy for a hundred years or more. And is it suggested that in seven years Hitler has made an end-of them? How childishly silly an idea: In the eves of this German writer, Hitler is merely a puppet chosen to dangle from wires controlled by “the generals'. . . of the glorious old Prussian Army,” without whom, “there would have been no Herr Hitler, and there would have been no war.” It would appear that similar opinions are held by Sir Edmund Ironside. .So much is to be gathered from his observations: “We do not for a moment think Hitler is our only enemy” and: “As long as the German Army is intact there will always be danger.” Hopes of ultimate peace depend in no small degree in any case upon Hie ability of the German people .to cast off their military and other tyrants. Whether the sufferings and hardships of war will rouse them to the effort that is needed remains to be seen. At least it need not be believed that they take delight in the miserable serfdom to which they have been reduced.- It is precisely as reasonable to pretend that the Germans are content with their political lot as it would be to contend, in the general absence of demonstrations to the contrary, that the inmates of a convict prison were a happy and united community, pursuing in freedom their natural bent. If there were a word of truth in assertions that the German masses are loyal to the Nazi regime, and to the military power behind if, there would he no need for the ruthless methods of brute force, terrorism and espionage by which the Nazis have destroyed every vestige of popular'liberty in the Reich. A PLAIN LEAD NEEDED JNCIDENTS within the ranks of the Labour Party to which the resignation from party membership of the member for Napier and Speaker of the House of Representatives ( Mr Barnard) is the latest addition are chiefly of interest as emphasising the need for a plain declaration at the earliest opportunity of Government policy. The people of the country at large are entitled to be told by what methods the Government proposes Io deal with the overshadowing problems of war organisation and national economy now so obviously demanding serious attention and decisive treatment. Reasonable time for planning ami preparation no doubt should be conceded to a Prime Minister newly installed in office, but in existing circumstances that time evidently should not be prolonged unduly. This emphatically is not a period in which the body ol' .New Zealanders will be inclined to look with tolerance on the waste of limo and effort in sectional political manoeuvring. With its sister Slates of the Empire tin 1 Dominion is in danger. 11 is supremely necessary that the national energies and resources should be organised to the best advantage in meeting the exacting demands of a war in which the continued existence of free peoples is at stake, if the Government gives the lead to which the country is entitled, concentrating on the essentials of a united ami expanding war effort and selling aside eontroversial issues which for the limo at least are of secondary ini porta nee. it will no doubt be given a broad measure ol' support which will enable it to look with indifference on political sideshows, even though they originate within its own party. It is a matter simply of dealing with affairs in their order of importance.