The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and The Echo and The Sum. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1938. HITLER SPEAKS FOR WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 228, 27 September 1938, Page 8

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

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1938. HITLER SPEAKS FOR WAR.

■ For ffie cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that tee can do.

Heir Hitler in Berlin last night said his Inst word. It is scarcely possible now to believe, or even lo hope, that he is bluffing, i'or lie hns committed himself before his own people. " Benes," he said, " can choose peace or war. He will either accept my demands or we will go and liberate our Germans." But—unless there should be a sudden capitulution by the Czechs, which there appears no reason to expect—the choice has already been made. It was made, not by the President of Czechoslovakia, but by the Fuehrer of the German Reich when he. announced that his " patience" was exhausted and that his demands—continually increasing— must be the law of Europe. "There is a point where conciliation must end," he said, " because it would be weakness." That is exactly the point to which the democratic peoples of the world have come, and the history of the last few years records how slowly and unwillingly they have reached it.

BRITAIN'S EFFOBTS. The successive phases of the crisis shoa>ld be fresh in the minds of all. Czechoslovakia is not a soundly-constituted State, though it is not the only one of which that might he said. The German minority, from the foundation of the republic, has had genuine grievances. There is no reason in justice why so powerful a minority should be expected to go on suffering disadvantages. There is every reason for removing its grievances) which, by constituting a source of weakness in the Czechoslovak State, imperil the whole political structure of Europe. This was clearly recognised by the British Government when it was responsible for sending Lord Runciman to Prague as mediator. Britain, it became obvious, was prepared to go to great lengths to procure concessions for the Sudeten Germans. It did go to great lengths. It apparently persuaded France, which was bound by treaty to Czechoslovakia, to agree to coerce the Czechoslovak Government into accepting conditions far more severe than any that had been contemplated during the negotiations. The conditions were such that it is even doubtful whether the British Government, when it came to defend them in the Commons, could have defended them successfully. But they did not satisfy Herr Hitler. He wants his own conditions and, if words mean anything, he is«now prepared to enforce them, even at the cost of precipitating an unnecessary war of which nobody can foresee either the extent or the end.

What is the real point of difference between Germany and the Western Powers f They have been prepared to bring about the granting to the Sudeten Germans (and possibly to the other minorities) of aa much self-government aa is consistent with the maintenance of the Czechoslovak Republic. Herr Hitler thinks nothing of the Czechoslovak Republic; he thinks only of " our Germans." According to himself, he told Mr. Chamberlain that after the Czech Government had peacefully settled its difficulties with the German minorities, and with the other minorities, too, Germany would be ready to join with other Powers in guaranteeing Czechoslovakia. But how much would then be left of Czechoslovakiaf It is clear that if Germany has the right (because it has the might) to take what it wants of the territory of the Czechoslovak State, other nations, particularly Poland and Hungary, have that right too. Admit that right, and you admit the right of the gangster.

WAE OAK SOLVE NOTHING. Perhaps Hen Hitler is correct in his judgment that the Czechoslovak State is an artificial .creation which in the long rnn cannot endure. But/ if so, what is the remedy! Is not the only remedy a great effort by all the Powers so to re-fashion the political structure of Europe that the most dangerous strains and stresses will be removed T Will any remedy be found by war? Remembering the last war, have, we Any reason to think that after another conflict the Powers and peoples would be in the mood or condition to fix the frontiers of Europe more wisely than they were fixed at Versaillesf The only rational way is to attempt the task in the peace before a "war, not after a war.

But it must be despairingly feared that ; the rational course is not possible while Adolf Hitler remains Fuehrer of the German Reich. His speech last night was a characteristic dictator's speech. He (spoke as one who, knowing no check to his will in his own country, feels that external checks are Intolerable. Statesmen who oppose him are madmen, liars and criminals; and the 1 democracies are "bloodthirsty monsters." The sporadic fighting between the Czechs and the members of the Sudeten Free Corps, and the necessarily strong measures taken by the Prague Government to maintain order during these last perilous days, are in his eyes an attempt " to exterminate the German race." The only man who did not understand" Herr Hitler's words about Austria has been " removed." Now he has spoken his last words about Czechoslovakia, and—is not the inference unmistakable?— those who do „ot Understand" are also to be 'removed." Should a man whose mental processes are so revealed be the head of a-great nation! Can the neighbour, of I that nation ever be safe while he **mains J