HITLER WANTS TO SMASH DEMOCRACIES

Radio Record, Volume XIII, Issue 11, 21 August 1939, Page 18

HITLER WANTS TO SMASH DEMOCRACIES

Uneasy And Unequal Alliance With Italy And Japan Necessary In Plan To Fight Britain, America, France

the days of the Stuarts, was a potent weapon in defenee of the rights of the individual member of soeiety. To-day it is an equally powerful weapon, wielded by individuals in defence of demoeratic States whese right to exist is threatened. Elwyn Jones, the author of "The Attack From Within," is a young man, but he has a remarkable grip of what is happening in’ Hurope today; so remarkable that one could wish the British Government would heed the words which he and others as informed have been writing during the last few months. In this short Penguin hook, little more than 206 pages in length, the plans of the megafomantac whose Napoleonic schemes threaten the peace of the world and the existence of contented States, are laid bare, The perfect dovetailing of events and prophecies, some of which have been fulfilled since the publication of the book, carry immediate conviction. In its small scope Pp AMPHLETEERING, in

"The Attack From Within" gives what is probably the best guide to the tangled web of current political history that could be obtained,

Needs Italy, Japan

THE thesis of the book is this. Hitler aims for first, the European, then. the world supremacy of his people. To eontrol the Mediterranean, he has needed Italy; to control the East, he needs Japan. These two States, similar to his own in philosophy, though different enough to make any alliance uneasy, have been admitted to an unequal and temporary partnership, Hitler wants war, he wants to smash the powerful democracies of France and Britain, then of the United States, But first he has things to do. ,

He has to have bound to him enough productive’ neighbouring territories to ensure a_ large enough supply of raw materials to guarantee his success when war does come. He must do this without fighting, for even the Flandinist policy of Chamberlain may break down if Britain is called upon to swallow war as well as peaceful annexation. So peaceful annexation it is, engineered in any way possible short of war, until the inevitable central European bloc coagulates as one firm invincible force, and war -with Britain-becomes the cbjective instead of the thing to be avoided.

Another Genius

JONES shows the importance to this campaign of each

independent State; what it can supply, what communications it controls, how it has fitted in or will fit in to the jigsaw of Die Fuehret’s avowed intentions. The policy is clever. That nation which produced Clausewitz and Bismarck and Hindenburg has produced another military genius. . But the old Junker regime has given way to the S.S., the S.A., the Gestapo, bodies with no pretension to civilised methods; bodies built on the doctrine of the end justifying the means, bodies established on the fear of each man of the man above. "We know that the Italians, as & people, do not want war, The joke today in Italy is that "conditions were better when we were governed by Mussolini,’ so great has the Fuehrer’s hold over the Duce become. The German people do not want war any more than the Italian people. They are taxed to the limit to provide the raw materials of war: when taxes yielded no more, Austria was annexed to the Reich. But war there will be, when Hitler has, by peaceful or pseudopeaceful means, subjugated enough territory to make his emPire a great producing bloc as well as a great warlike Power.

Austrian Sacrifice

RITAIN stands by and aequiesces. A Foreign Secretary was sacrificed over Austria. The British people and the things that humanity has so hardly won-liberty, equality, fraternity, as the French express it-will be sacrificed too if the War from Within, the gradual upsetting of each State from within its own boundaries, is allowed to continue. There is a psychology of advance, another of retreat. Britain must either stand pat or give ground. Nowhere do we hear of Britain the aggressor. It might be better for the peace of the world if we did. All we do hear is rumours of "tricky Britain" trying to hamper the Anglo-Japanese talks until she has concluded an alliance with Russia. The rumours are probably baseless; but if they are not, procrastination would at least be a justifiable weapon with which to counter the totalitarian policy which Mr, Jones so admirably exposes; the policy of creating a diversion in the Hast as soon as trouble develops in the West; of keeping the democracies occupied all the time on two fronts.

Grim Reading

OW is Hitler putting his campaign into effect? The eable page of any daily newspaper will tell us what happens; but it has needed an Elwyn Jones to piece the whole together, and to condemn Germany out of the mouths of her own statesmen. For the book is fully documented. Hitler, Goering and Goebbels are quoted to prove Germany’s demands, and their ultimate extent. The quotations make grim reading. The inner story of the Czechoslovak surrender is as grim, The first step is by propaganda, Not long ago we read of the story of the unmasking of a’

giant spy conspiracy in Paris. The picture "Nazi Spy" is based on similar actual happenings In the United States. The "Link" organisation, alleged to he a similar organisation in Great Britain is only (if, in this case, the allegation is well founded) One of many set up to disseminate the cultural ideals of the German people, as they are so euphemistically expressed. Similar organisations are operas tive almost everywhere-and Mr, Jones gives chapter and verse, Re-« produced with this review are actual photostat copies of documents used in the campaign in England.

Guns Or Butter"

THE methods are insidious, and damnably _ effective. An "If not, why not?’’ questionnaire is circulated among German residents abroad. If they refuse to join the party, oy give no answer, or no reason for not joining-they have relatives, perhaps, in Germany. There is a screw which can be turned, . Hitler must make haste. His is an unenviable position. He could not turn back if he would. His people are a poor people. "Guns or butter" is a phrase full of real meaning. Jones analyses Germany’s ims ports to prove it. Germany is full of unrest. Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, Czechoslovakia have supplied the raw materials of existence as well as of war, When these become exhausted Hitler will have to have recourse to other States, Spending so much of his national income on armaments, he has ne course but to get food by the peaceful annexation of other States-ins dependent States-to feed his people now, and to provide food supplies. for the inevitable anti-de-mocratic campaign for which he is headed, but upon which he cannot yet embark for lack of just those steady food supplies. Elwyn Jones has some hard words for Britain’s weakness. He must have felt both glad and ashamed when the United States only recently adopted the firm front which should have heen our own, Passive resistance, up to a point, is a strong policy. That perpetual barking, with very little bite, means a weak policy (in this case a suicidal policy), is the thesis of Jones’s remarkable indictment S-P, . "The Attack From Within." Ef-« wyn Jones. Penguin Books. Our copy from the publishers.