The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. MONDAY, AUGUST 14, 1039. MOVE AND COUNTER-MOVE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 190, 14 August 1939, Page 6

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

MONDAY, AUGUST 14, 1039. MOVE AND COUNTER-MOVE.

For the cause that Lacks assistance. For the irrong that reeds resistance, For the future in 'he distance, And the good that ice can do.

Tt is symptomatic of present conditions in Europe that so much news consists of speculation, and speculation on one theme — wluit Hitler will do next, and when and where he will do it. Lately the focus of ;he speculation has been Danzig, where the Nazis express their confidence that the Free City will soon be part and parcel of the Reich. It would be easy for the Danzig Nazis to make a formal declaration to that effect; the difficulty lies in gauging what would happen in consequence of it. Would Poland fight ? If she fought, and invoked the aid ot Britain and France, they could do little immediately to help her. Her principal ally might be Russia, but the Poles would not lightly appeal to Moscow, and the British-Russian-French pact is still under negotiation. In these circumstances it is not unreasonable to suppose, as the news to-dnv suggests, that the German effort is being directed to creating such a situation that the. Poli.-di Government will be forced to recognise that to fight would be not only imprudent but suicidal. In such an event Britain and France would not fight, either, and Hitler would have won another victory.

Apparently in pursuit of this aim, the Germans are said to be bringing pressure upon Hungary. Hungary is already within the German orbit and is a subscriber of the anti-Comintern pact, but her Government and people (except the militant Nazi element) have shown no disposition to yield more than they are obliged to yield of their independence. Whether they can withstand the combined German and Italian pressure, which it is now suggested is being applied, is exceedingly doubtful. As any other small nation would in the circumstances, they will wonder who might help them if they resisted the pressure. Possible allies are few and far away. Meanwhile the dispatch of Indian troops to the Libyan frontier of Egypt suggests an anticipation that Italy's part in the next "push" will be to distract attention, and forces, from Europe, to make Britain and France think long before making a firm stand against further aggression in Europe. That this intention has been foreseen, and to some extent forestalled, is encouraging evidence of Britain's resolve to be ready for anything.