The Dominion. MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1933. GERMANY DEFIES WORLD OPINION

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 18, 16 October 1933, Page 8

The Dominion. MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1933. GERMANY DEFIES WORLD OPINION

Germany’s dramatic withdrawal from the Disarmament Conference nnd the LeaXe of Nations, and the challenge implied m Herr Hhleris decision to appeal to German public opinion through a general election serve to aggravate a position already distractmgly difficult The world had resigned itself to the prospect that no substantial achievement could be expected from th f e again she the one-sided and provocative action of Germany. Once aga I,as Ks h ~ A ’,7 months ago her claims were received with sympathy by a section of world opinion- But since the advent of Ihe Nazis wtn thpir “shock” tactics at home and abroad, she has lost inend ane friend The dragooning of the Jews and of all free opinion disgustec the British. Italy was made apprehensive by the offensive again her neighbour, Austria. Soviet Russia has turned away from Geimanv and toward her former association with France. y So it has gone on. A very short period of Nazi ffiplomacy has sufficed to isolate Germany in a suspicious world. . No doubt Her Hitler wants to cover up this disastrous retrogression. One of his main aims was to restore German prestige and status among. t nations. Instead Germany has become the international sus Pectare the true facts to be cloaked and Germans convinced that every nation except Germany is out of step? . ' Apparently Herr Hitler is confident that he can cotwince his own people, otherwise he would not risk a plebiscite. By P pression of all organs of opinion and all voices except lus own, y the dissolution of all other parties in the State, he has made a clearfield for his own statement of the position. Differences of viewpoint can only be expressed in whispers. Therefore, freed of any vestige of open opposition, he may be able to carry the elections next month, but little value will belong to such a verdict. Meanwhile what can the nations accomplish at Geneva in the absence of Germany, and also of Japan? They might think it wort while to go on and complete a disarmament convention which they would be prepared to accept subject to the adherence of the absentees. Such a prpvisiona! convention should have some, moral value in the world at large, although it might prove impossible to acquaint the German people of its content. . , All the same' the international outlook has been made definitely gloomier by Germany’s secession from international councils. Economic self-sufficiency prevailed through the failure of the London Conference ; military self-sufficiency has been asserted, first by Japan s action and now by Germany’s. It appears as if the old system of protection by balances of power through military alliances is to replace the idea of covenants and conferences. It is earnestly to be hoped that world opinion will revolt from the reaction toward self-centred nationalism but, if not, then the British Empire must prepare to meet the new situation. -