“ALL SET FOR AN EARLY WAR ”

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21973, 23 December 1936, Page 5

“ALL SET FOR AN EARLY WAR ”

OPINION OF PROMINENT ENGLISHMAN DESPERATE FOOD SHORTAGE IN GERMANY “It looks as if Hitler has everything ‘all set’ for an early war.” This statement was included in a letter which was read by Mr F. L. Carter, of Clifton College, England, during an address at yesterday’s luncheon of the Christchurch Rotary Club. Mr Carter is the father-in-law of Mr R. J. Richards, headmaster of Christ’s College, and some years ago taught under the exchange system at Christ’s College. His correspondent he described as a leading English business man, a director of a firm which produced the acetone that forms the basis of explosives. His business connexions with Germany were very close and his private information in the past had proved correct.

The letter, which was received in Christchurch yesterday morning, stated “We are living in a most difficult time. In the midst of it all the people of England stand out as being sober and sane, with an honest ideal and a clean purpose in life. “These madmen are leading the rest of Europe in chains. I should like to tell you some of the private talks I have had with friends in Germany. It looks as if Hitler has everything ‘all set’ for an early war, and indeed one does not see how he can avoid it — in view of the conditions in Germany. From all I can learn, from frequent and regular visits to Germany, it seems certain that the shortage of food will be desperate before the spring. The thoughts of the people will need distraction by some means or other—and Hitler’s only means will be war. If war comes it will be a difficult business keeping this country out.” Mr Carter then appealed to those present to do what they could to make the people of New Zealand realise how serious the situation was. Mr Jordan, he said, had been laying down the law in England to people who knew far more about it than he could possibly know.

Mr Carter said he saw no suggestions for reforming ths territorial force. New Zealanders were “living in a fool’s paradise." They thought that being far away no harm could come to them. But what of New Zealand if Britain went under? War. if it came, concluded Mr Carter. would, with its clash between Nazi-ism and democracy, be like the religious wars of the Middle Ages and Renaissance times. After the Thirty Years’ War desolation reigned for a hundred years.