The Press THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1939. “This Campaign is Serious”

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22851, 26 October 1939, Page 8

The Press THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1939. “This Campaign is Serious”

To judge from cabled summaries, Herr von Ribbentrop’s speech in Danzig addfe nothing new to the international situation. In the main, it is a further embellishment of the German case against Poland and a further intensification of the attempt to drive a wedge between Great Britain and France. To reply in detail to Herr von Ribbentrop’s highly selective account of his Government’s efforts to settle the Danzig problem and of Polish “ provocations against Germany in the last few weeks preceding the outbreak of war is unnecessary; for, if the German Government sincerely believes that it has been wronged by world opinion in this matter, it should have no objection to publishing the relevant diplomatic correspondence as has been done by both Great Britain and France. The material in the British “ blue “ book ” on 'the origins of the present war shows that up to the last moment Great Britain and France strove to keep the peace and to persuade the German Government to settle the Polish problem by peaceful means. If the German Government has in its possession any documents which might put a different complexion on the course of events leading up to the war, it should be anxious to publish them. The. charges of Polish provocation, particularly in Danzig, will impress no one who recalls the similar charges made against Czechoslovakia in August and September of 1938. Indeed, it is certain that the tolerant attitude of the Polish Government, in the face of repeated infringements of its established legal rights in Danzig by the German Government and the German minority seriously weakened its own military position. Germany captured Danzig in the military sense long before the war started. As an effort to justify attack on Poland, Herr von Ribbentrop’s speech is negligible; as another example of the single-minded determination of the German Government and its propaganda machine to drive a wedge between Great Britain . and France it must be taken "seriously, even though it need at the moment cause no uneasiness. M. Leon Blum, in a recent newspaper article, has called attention to the danger of assuming that this campaign by the “ astute and cautelous mindreaders of the Ger- “ man wireless ” is innocuous and calls for no counter-measures.

The first, impulse [writes M. Blum] •is to shrug one’s shoulders: really, do these people take us for fools? We have been warned of this for some time. Hitler himself has constantly repeated that the German victory depends upon the dissociation of France from Great Britain. This first impulse is quite right and altogether relevant. But it is unwise to make light of things. This campaign is serious. By gradually working on public opinion day by day, in every way and at every opportunity, there is no sentiment which a clever and persevering propagandist cannot succeed in imposing. The sole means of anticipating its ravages is to counter-attack with a similar perseverance, to unmask and expose this technique, to subject it to the' all-important influence of facts, truth, and reason.

Since M. Blum itfrote this, 39 Communist members of the Chamber of Deputies have been imprisoned for opposing continuance of the war. It is therefore necessary to recognise frankly that there is a peace party in France, numerically insignificant and yet potentially dangerous in a war which is resolving itself more and more into a test of national morale. Great Britain and France have only to endure to win. But whereas in the last war they fought to repel an invader on French soil, in this war they are fighting against a menace which, though vastly greater than that presented by the German armies of 1914, may appear to some Frenchmen less immediate. Their territory is not invaded; their “vital interests,” Herr von assures them, are not attacked and will not be attacked. As M. Blum points out, this form of propaganda demands a reply. Englishmen and Frenchmen must be kept reminded of the record of National Socialism; they must be kept reminded Jhat their “vital interests” are not territories or wealth but the establishment of peace in Europe on lasting foundations. And Mr Chamberlain cannot repeat too often that in this war Great Britain seeks no material gains and is in fact faced with the certainty of grave material losses.