The Press SATURDAY, MAY 4, 1935. Germany in the Dock

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21464, 4 May 1935, Page 14

The Press SATURDAY, MAY 4, 1935. Germany in the Dock

.Mr slamsay MacDonakl's impassioned denunciation of Germany in the official organ of the National Labour p-Tty has provided a curious and depressing indication of the state of English public opinion on foreign affairs. " Germany," declared Mr MacDonaid, " has acted in such " a way as to destroy the feeling of "mutual confidence in. Europe. " Germany has broken the road to " peace and beset it with terrors." The House of Commons greeted with cheers an announcement that these statements " represented the policy "of the Government"; and for the first time in many months the Prime Minister was warmly praised by Liberal and Labour members of the opposition. It is understandable that the excesses committed in Germany by the Nazi regime should have produced a revulsion of feeling against Germany. It is also understandable that the sudden turn for the worse in the European situation as a result of German rearmament should give rise to a momentary and not very intelligent bitterness against the immediate culprit. But h is very difficult to understand why a splenetic outburst in a party periodical should be accepted by the British Government as a considered statement of its policy and why the whole House of Commons should applaud a judgment on the German nation which is as unjust as it is harmful. The present policy of the German Government must be judged, not in the light of immediate diplomatic situation, but in the light of German history since the war. It ought not to be forgotten that the Treaty of Versailles was one of the most unwise peace settlements ever concluded in Europe and the first peace settlement in which the defeated nations were unrepresented in the preliminary negotiations, It ought not to be forgotten that Germany's violation of the treaty is not the first, that until about 1930 Germany was the most pacifist nation in the world, that Hitlerism was as much a product of European statesmanship as the League of Nations or the Polish corridor, and. finally, that Hcrr Hitler has never closed the door to ail-round disarmament. Many Englishmen would acquire a better sense of perspective in this matter if they could read what is being written in America about the present phase of the European crisis. The following extract from an article by Mr Oswald Garrison Villard, who will not be accused of a bias in favour of Germany, expresses an opinion which is very widely held among his countrymen:—

The statesmen of Europe have been living in a fools' paradise. They have pretended that they were the realists; that they alona were competent to decide upon the fate of Europe and especially that of Germany and Austria. They have paid no attention to their solemn promises to disarm after Germany was thoroughly disarmed; they have been too feeble, too irresolute, too vacillating, too cowardly to take hold of the Treaty of Versailles, which they themselves have breached as it suited their purpose. They have admitted that the treaty was ended as far as all reparations oayments were concerned, and yet they never, moved to rewrite it, to do away with obvious injustices, or to deprive the rising Nazi movement in Germany of the chief ammunition for its advance to power. Mow Hitler has awakened them. There is much unfairness and exaggeration in all this; but it is ■<• much j uster estimate of the' situation than Mr McDonald's. Though it is possible that some nations are more to blame than others for the pass in which Europe finds itself to-day, not one of them has a record which would entitle it to indulge the luxury of moral indignation at the expense of Germany. There are no villains and no heroes on the European stage. The piece that is being played is merely a tragedy of stupidity and lost opportunities.