NAZIS ACTIVE

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20923, 30 September 1939, Page 8

NAZIS ACTIVE

ECONOMIC WARFARE DENIAL BY BRITAIN METHODS OF ATTACK (Official Wireless) (Received Sept. 30, 3.15 p.m.) RUGBY, Sept. 29 It is significant of the great—and it may well be conclusive—importance of economic warfare in the present conflict with Germany that so large a part of the Nazi propaganda effort is directed to misrepresentation of British action in this respect and to attempt to justify the methods employed by the Nazi Government, which are violent, undiscriminating and inherently likely to cause loss of life, while the British methods, pursued in the legitimate exercise of sea power, are directed to lawful ends and not aimed against human life or innocent cargoes. So far as the British action against the contraband trade is concerned the instruments by which it is carried on are such as to permit full conformity with the laws of war and avoid loss of life or unnecessary damage. The difference between the German and British methods is one between what is essentially a weapon of terror, even if wielded, as it often is, by men personally brave and gallant, on the one hand, and on the other a carefully-regulated system of warfare under the control of prop-erly-regulated courts. The German Allegations The German propaganda on this subject takes two principal forms. There is first an assertion that Britain, by the inclusion of foodstuffs on the list of condition contraband, is conducting a blockade that is both inhuman and illegal. Secondly, there is the suggestion that the British action is inimical and unfair to neutral interests. The first charge falls into two parts—inhumanity and illegality. As to inhumanity, it is to be remembered that it was the Nazis who began some years ago to deny food to German women and children from the day when Field Marshal Goering told them that it was better to have guns than butter. It was this fatal choice by the Nazi leaders that first caused the German people to tighten their belts and the same leadership that has plunged them and other peoples into a war which is itself the great inhumanity. Weapon of Starvation Starvation has been one of the consequences of warfare and one of its weapons from the earliest times. As Mr Chamberlain said in the House of Commons on Tuesday: “No on« ever suggested that a besieging commander should allow free rations to a besieged town.” But it can be said* with truth that it is the Allies’ aim that when the war is over the German people should have fewer more food, and meanwhile every effort is being made to minimise, wherever possible, the sufferings of the non-combatant enemy. As far as the second claim of German propaganda is concerned, it is likely to be received with scepticism in neutral countries, where there is general recognition that the British, while conducting the war that has been forced upon them, seek and intend to safeguard the interests of neutrals, which are indeed in many i respects identical with Britain’s own interests.