NAZIS AND GERMANS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 November 1941, Page 7

NAZIS AND GERMANS

INDICTMENT OF WHOLE PEOPLE.

VIEWS OF MR J. A. SPENDER. I am tempted to say a few words about the controversy which has arisen over the effort which Lord Vansittart is making to enlighten us about what he believes to be the true character of the German people, writes Mr J. A. Spender in the “Yorkshire Observer.” He will not listen to the distinction which is commonly made between the Nazis and the German people. He is not deterred by Burke's warning against indicting a whole people. He does indict the whole German people, and insists that there will be no peace unless we realise that they are all guilty together and must all be placed cutside the comity of civilised nations. Now I have enough of the old Adam in me to take a certain satisfaction in Lord Vansittart’s fulminations. He gives vigorous expression to what 1 feel about the outrages which are being inflicted on the world in the name of the German people. But when I have -had this satisfaction I began to ask, “Where does this argument lead?” and very little reflection on that pulls me up. The first thing I observe is that it cuts right across what we must suppose to be the considered attitude of both the British and American Governments. Mr Churchill certainly does not mince his words in talking of our enemy in the war. But he speaks not of the German people, but of the “evil men” whom we are out to destroy and with whom we can have no compromise. And in the eight points to which 1 he and President Roosevelt have notified their adhesion as the result of their conferences we find the same discrimination. They wish to “further the enjoyment of all States, great or small, victor oi' vanquished, of access on equal terms to the trade and to the raw materials of the world which are needed for their economic prosperity.” After “the final destruction of Nazi tyranny they hope to see established a peace which will afford to all nations the means of dwelling in safety within their own boundaries.” Inferentially it disclaims the idea of persecuting or “destroying” the German people after the “Nazi tyranny” has been destroyed.