Why We Fight

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20923, 30 September 1939, Page 15 (Supplement)

Why We Fight

NAZI AGGRESSION : GREATEST CRIME IN HISTORY (W. M. Hughes in Sydney Sun.)

ONCE AGAIN WAR has engulfed us. Once again the Empire is locked in deadly conflict with Germany; and once again Germany is the aggressor. That she is the aggressor, that she deliberately willed the war, that by cunning and shameful diplomatic manoeuvres she sabotaged the efforts at peaceful settlement of her dispute with Poland, is beyond argument. The Australian people will never understand how this war has come about, why Britain and France are. fighting Germany, and above all, what are the issues at stake and what the war means to Australia, unless they realise this fundamental fact— Germany is the Aggressor. Germany has let loose the dogs of war, has rudely shattered all hopes of peace, has condemned millions of hapless men, women and children to death in its most awful shapes. Germany stands before the bar of the world as the aggressor. And she stands condemned! Germany deliberately willed this war; she plotted to shipwreck the peace. For over twenty years she has violently and hysterically protested against the charge of blood guilt fastened on her by the nations after the close of the last war. She complained that Britain had not clearly stated her intentions, that if Britain had said quite, clearly that if Belgium were invaded or France attacked, she would go to their aid, there would have been no war. This time that poor excuse will not serve. Germany knew that Britain had pledged her word to Poland to come to her aid if attacked by Germany. Not once, but many times Britain officially notified her to that effect. She knew this in the most definite way., Only last week, in fact only a few hours before Germany launched her fateful attack, the British Ambassador was charged with the delivery of a special message from Mr Chamberlain to Herr Hitler, reiterating in the most definite and solemn way that an attack upon Poland meant war with France and England. Germany, then, knew beyond any shadow of doubt when she hurled her legions across the border, that an attack upon Poland meant war with France and Britain. Not only did she know that Britain had pledged herself to come to the aid of Poland if attacked by Germany, but she complained bitterly of Britain’s interference, declaring that if Britain stood aside, Poland would yield to Germany’s demands, or if she ventured to resist, be utterly crushed in a short and ruthless campaign. Hitler accuses Britain of the heinous crime of keeping her word and defending the weak! Germany has again plunged the world into war; she has done this deliberately; Hitler stands before the bar of the civilised world as the man guilty of the Greatest Crime in All History. Why has Hitler done this awful thing? He tells us that it will restore Danzig to the Reich and make such modifications of the boundaries and political control of the Corridor as will protect minorities and ensure free communication between East Prussia and the rest of Germany. He says that the existing state of affairs in the Corridor was intolerable; that the minorities were being brutally ill-treated; that justice and the natural rights of a proud and great nation were being contemptuously ignored. These words are a hollow sham to cloak a terrible purpose. Were the wrongs of the German minorities in Poland so great, their sufferings so terrible as to justify this dreadful crime against civilisation? Whatever the conditions in the Corridor were, they had existed for twenty years; whatever wrongs the minorities suffered, they had endured during all those years. Nay more, they had not only been endured by the minorities, but accepted by Hitler and enshrined by him in the pact which he made with Poland in 1934, guaranteeing her quiet possession of the Corridor and the. status of Danzig as a Free City under the suzerainty of the League of Nations! _ -rPPty a few months ago, he reiterated his recognition of Polish rights and declared that he had no wish to impair them. Then suddenly the conditions which had existed for 20 years, which he himself had not only accepted as he found them, but enshrined and perpetuated in a treaty became so intolerable that he could not wait two days’ one day, to enable the Polish Government to consider his proposals, or to allow the British Government to use its influence with Poland to bring about a peaceful settlement. The position is crystal clear! Offered peace, Hitler deliberately chose war, and so stands Outlawed Among Civilised Men! We are at war. We are not at war because the German demands form a casus belli; indeed, Britain and France, and Poland, too, expressed their readiness to negotiate on the basis of those terms; nor are we at war because we do not think there is any case for the realignment of the Polish Corridor.

These issues—Danzig and the Corridor—are properly the subject of negotiation, and might have been decided by a conference in which not only Germany and Poland, but Britain, France and Italy took part. We are not fighting for Danzig or the Corridor. These are mere subsidiary issues. The issue which this war will decide, and for which the democracies are fighting, is whether Might or Right shall rule on earth. This is the great issue and one upon which hangs the destinies of the human race. The leopard cannot change his spots; as it was in 1914, it is, in substance, to-day. What I said then might well have been said to-day—-“We are at war with Germany. The war is none of our making. We have no quarrel with the masses of the German nation, but we have a quarrel, and a quarrel to the death, with the ruthless autocracy which during the last few years has hoped to dominate the world and trample, under foot liberty and democratic Government. In order to meet the machinations of this barbaric political creed, we have taken up the sword. We are face to face with the most terrible realities. It is. for us a Struggle of Life and Death and we must not forget this fact. Sentiment is idle; mere talk will not avail.” We fought, we suffered, but in the end we conquered. Now it is all to do over again. We are again at war with Germany. We must face it; it is none of our making. For many months Britain and France exerted every means at their disposal to effect a peaceful settlement. The leaders of all the great States of the world have appealed to Hitler to pause and seek some other method than recourse to war, but to no purpose! Every avenue was explored, eveiy effort at peaceful settlement was made, concessions going, as some thought, beyond the safe and proper limit, were made to conciliate and propetiate the great War Lord, but to no purpose. Czechoslovakia has fallen into the maw of the Reich. But Hitler’s ambition is insatiable. Every concession spurs him to fresh efforts; every conquest renders his further demands more difficult to resist. No one is able even faintly to assess the consequences of this last and most terrible appeal to force. Its range, its duration, its effects upon us and the world at large are incalculable. It may well mean the destruction of civilisation. A fire has been kindled which may consume the whole earth. The coming oi war has more than justified the steps which this country has taken to defend itself against aggression. From the moment Australia is far removed from the vortex of the storm. In the East, where but yesterday the clouds gathered darkly, full of menace to the Commonwealth, the prospect is less grave; the immediate position is less menacing than that which confronts Britain. But even at this distance, the foundations of our national and economic life Are in Grave Danger. Upon the ability of Britain and France to beat down aggression depends to a very large extent our future safety. But who shall say how long Australia will remain outside the range of the white hot flames of war? During the last few days we have seen how precarious is the position of any country depending on the support of others. Russia, but yesterday at daggers drawn with Germany and a probable ally of Britain, today walks side by side with Germany. The Anti-Comintern Pact—the very foundation of the Axis Powers agreement—is now a scrap of paper; and all the world stands aghast while Hitler and Stalin march hand in hand. This has brought about a dramatic change in the situation in the Far East, which for the moment makes the immediate danger to us less imminent. This is the position to-day, but in the face of the staggering changes of the last two or three weeks, no man can prophesy what will happen in the near future. Australia is at war. She is not at war because she wishes to keep Danzig out of the Reich or to prevent the re-alignment of the Corridor. The issue in this great struggle goes to the very roots of civilisation. We are at war because we need peace to develop our heritage, and there can be no peace for us or for the world whilst Germany, defying Might and contemptuous of Right, continues to Terrify and Crush One Nation After Another. We are at war because there is no other way in which our liberties can be preserved and our country ensured from aggression. We are fighting against the demoralisation of mankind by violence, against brute force, against contemptuous violation of treaties, against international gangster methods. W T e are fighting for our national ideals, for our free institutions, for the Commonwealth of British Nations and all that it means to us and to the world, and we are fighting to save ourselves from the fate which has already overtaken the people of Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland. And in the great fight we must, at all hazards, and at all costs, win our way to victory.