The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH AND INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1938. LEADERLESS NATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 281, 28 November 1938, Page 6

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

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1938. LEADERLESS NATION.

For the cause that lack* aneittance, Fnr the irrong that veeda resistance. For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

A •**-* m «wa Thorp can be few more alarming | contrasts in Europe to-day than the (liiveriunents of Germany and of France. The one knows what it want-* and it has so urbanised and controlled the German people that on significant occasions the nation moves, or is moved, as one man. The other does not know what it wants, and, so far, no leader produced has been able to lay down and pursue a policy for a period long enough to he beneficial. This condition, of ciiiir-e. might he termed France's own affair. I>llr, unfortunately, in the Europe of to-day it has con«e<|uenres which reach far beyond ] the French frontiers. It will no! he ! I nrgiittcri that. France was without ;i j Clovernment when Hitler marched into [ Austria. More recently, the Government of M. Dalndier received an overwhelming vote of approval for the part which its Prime Minister and Foreign Minister played in the Munich agreement, and only last week it signed a peace pact with Germany, l.ut now it is faced with an internal situation which will almost certainly result in its downfall. The complaint of Herr Hitler that it is difficult or impossible to make firm agreements with democracies, because the Government which makes them may soon be replaced, has much to justify it in the spectacle of France. When the Popular Front Government was formed in 1938 it embarked on a series of social reforms, some of which were long overdue. The reform programme was so comprehensive that for its successful completion there was needed a period of economic prosperity and international quiet. But the period has been one of continual disquiet, leading France, like other | countries, to make efforts to strengthen her i defences. The task of carrying through the social programme, and, at the same time, meeting the needs of rearmament, has proved impossible. The workers, resolved J at least to maintain their gains, have resisted, as they are resisting to-day, the Government's efforts to bring about greater t and more efficient production, and now f the country is faced with a general , strike. Those who participate in it would be united on the day of mobilisation; there • is no question of their patriotism. What they have yet to realise is that they can just as surely lose their country by their * actions in peaee as by their actions in war.