The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. TUESDAY, MAY 16, 1933. "BLOOD IS THEIR ARGUMENT."

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 113, 16 May 1933, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

TUESDAY, MAY 16, 1933. "BLOOD IS THEIR ARGUMENT."

For the cause that lacks assistance. For the wrong that needs mist anon, For the future in the distance. And the good that vs can da,

"How can they charitably dispose of any thing, -when blood is their argument-?"' This question might well be asked of the Nazis and Junkers into whose hands the government of Germany lias fallen, just as it was asked of the Germany of 1914. He it von Papen has made a fiery denunciation of pacifism and a glorification of war -which recall the utterances of Bernhardi and Treitschke -when they preached world power or downfall. Bernhardi expounded a gospel of naked force, while Treitschke exalted the Nordic race above all others and began that violent antiSemitism which Hitler has followed with deeds of violence that have shocked the world. There is something quite hysterical in von Papen's outburst. It reads like a parody of old-time Prussian self-glorification.

Germany's present mood shouts defiance to the world. Hitler has joined up with all the reactionary forces of Junkerdom. AVhcn von Papen was appointed Chancellor it was felt that the Junkers had triumphed over the more moderate elements in German politics. There was consternation in the minds of. the Social Democrats and the Liberals. The Centre Party, of which von Papen " was a dissident, rejected him; they even preferred Hitler and his Nazis to a collaboration with him, and they said so in a most emphatic way. Even Hitler at that time rejected von Papen's company. The distrust felt by the more moderate elements has been justified. He has now adopted the saying of Bernhardt, that "war is not merely a necessary clement in the life of nations, but an indispensable factor of kultui-," and that other saying, that "might is the supreme right, and the dispute as to what is right is decided by the arbitrament of war." The old spirit of Prussianism has found expression in the Junker-Nazi combination in Germany. What is happening in Germany to-day should help our post-war generation to understand 1914, why it was that that generation felt that the very existence of civilisation was at stake, and that there could be no peace until Germany was completely defeated. The Nazis have defied Geneva, flouted the Versailles Treaty, threatened to rearm, insulted Austria, and acted like a savage tribe of barbarians in their treatment of the Jews and Socialists. Hitler would do well to think again before he thus continues to defy the world. The disarmament clauses of the Treaty of Versailles are still binding, and the sanctions provided in the treaty are still operative. The present reaction back to the past may bring a similar reaction on the part of other Powers back to a past when they united to crush the very spirit which von Papen glorifies to-day.