Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, ‘NOVEMBER 26, 1940. HITLER’S AMBITION.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 39, 26 November 1940, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, ‘NOVEMBER 26, 1940. HITLER’S AMBITION.

History records many alliances and pacts but none comparable with the Axis Pact which has just received several signatures. Veiling their action under the guise of a desire to assist in the reconstruction of Europe and the defence of modern civilisation the statesmen of South-eastern Europe have accepted the pact under threat of ( annihilation of their country and the enslavement of their people. The extension of the pact is the result of propaganda and pressure that apparently had their birth with the Hitier-Musso-iini conversations at the Brenner Pass recently. First came a renewed understanding between the two European partners of the Axis and Hungary; next the enlistment of ex-King Leopold of Belgium among participants in the developing scheme; and now Rumania, which had shown a disposition to favour Britain, finds that circumstances are too strong for her. The plan is rounded off by an offer to Turkey, acceptance of which would mean that she would become a docile buffer State, at least till Hitler willed that she be transformed into a mere vassal. Spain, too, has come within, the orbit of the Fuhrer’s ambition. Greece has already asserted herself. Behind j the scenes-, it can be reasonably assumed, have been Russia and the Vichy Government. Territorial changes, it seems, have been definitely contemplated. According to circumstantial accounts of these, France is to receive a part of Belgium, as compensation for the French territory transferred to Italy, and Leopold is to be king of a new country —the remainder ,of Belgium, with Holland and Luxemburg. Thus the scope of the Reich—for over all the region named there will be Nazi rule, at least indirectly—will be permanently expanded to cover the lands nominally apportioned to Hungary s rulers, to Leopold and to the Vichy Government, while Mussolini will be assured of possession of his acquisitions from France and of Greece when its subdual is accomplished. This grandiose plan of establishing the Axis Powers in an impregnable position and crowding Britain out of the European picture, however, contains within it *he germ that will wreck it. The strength of the British Empire lies in the fact that its bonds are bonds of freedom. The Axis plan is on subjugation and coercion. Not for long will peoples who have tasted any measure of freedom yield to the oppressor.