HITLER’S MAY DAY MESSAGE

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 184, 3 May 1934, Page 8

HITLER’S MAY DAY MESSAGE

In studying the sentiments expressed by Herr Hitler in his May Day speech it is necessary to remember that they were primarily intended for domestic consumption. A dictator often finds it expedient to talk in somewhat flamboyant language for the sake of emphasis, for rousing his audience. But the remarks, so far as their implications applied, were intended to reach foreign ears as well. In essence they amount to this: Germany is prepared to follow a policy of peace, but on one condition, namely, that she is granted “equality of the right of self-defence.”

A substantial body of opinion in Britain, and in Europe, endorses this attitude as a matter of justice. It is 20 years since the Great War broke out. and 15 years since the Peace Treaty was signed, a long enough interval for bitterness to subside, and the hatchet to be buried. Yet French intransigeance compels other nations to acquiesce in a policy which holds the German nation in a position of inferiority. It is a policy which keeps public resentment in Germany alive, and forces the political leaders in that country to tune their public speeches to a consonant key. Herr Hitler has made this business of equality in defensive armaments a major national grievance, and on the face of it there seems to be no reason in common sense why it should not he removed, with or without French agreement. But there remains this question, and France makes a strong point of it: Granted equality in defensive armaments, would Germany, in the person of Herr Hitler, be content to leave it at that? French opinion holds that if Germany were conceded one thing she would immediately demand another, and so on, and make each successive demand a condition of peaceful policy on her part. She might demand the restoration of her lost colonies, which Lord Rothermere in an extraordinary outburst recently declared would be reasonable and right. She might demand the abolition of the Polish Corridor, admittedly one of the silliest expedients the Peace Conference contrived.

If the German problem is looked at in this light, then obviously the thing to do is to take stock of all the grievances, which means Treaty-revision, long insisted upon by Signor Mussolini, and endorsed in many quarters elsewhere. Such a course would open up an entirely new avenue of approach to the question of disarmament and the reform of the League of-Nations, That its results would completely satisfy Germany is extremely doubtful, for aniendments to the Treaty would have to be acceptable to France. Tn the meantime it is becoming increasingly apparent that if Germany is not conceded her claim for equality she may assert it, and defend it by force if she is challenged. That is the real meaning of Herr Hitler's May Day message.