WHAT HITLER IS AFTER

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 242, 9 July 1938, Page 3 (Supplement)

WHAT HITLER IS AFTER

The Hegemony Of Europe

On February 12, 1933, as a special correspondent of the “Sunday Express,” I published an account of an interview I had been given by Hitler, in which be outlined what he was going to do, wrote Colonel P. T. EthertOU.

Everything be stated has come true. Germany has left the League of Nations. The Rhineland has been occupied. An a rra n gem en t—temporary, no doubt —has been effected in connection ■with the Polish Corridor. Austria has been brought into the German confederation. And so it goes on. Looking neither to the right uor the left, Hitler has gone straight ahead. His all-consuming and natural passion is to make Germany the greatest power on the earth. His assertions left no doubt in my mind that be envisaged a Germany stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea and to the Mediterranean—a Germany self-contained so far as is humanly possible, and able to tackle any one who might be opposed to herThe programme that has been thought out has, so far, been fulfilled step by step, with conclusive results, and it has achieved its success by hard efficiency and superlative organisation, levelling each obstruction in turn. What are the next objectives of the Nazis? Contrary to much that has been printed and said, the next objective, I am sure, is not Czechoslovakia, but Hungary—one of the granaries of Central Europe. Hitler has already brought the new German frontier right up to Italy on the Brenner Pass. He means to drive a wedge' down to the Mediterranean. He plans to make Trieste into a second Hamburg and Kiel, where he can set up a powerful naval base, mainly for submarines, bn which the Germans place great -reliance. All the world knows, or should know, that Germany has been building submarines for some time, submarines that have exceptional speed, with striking power superior to anything they had in the last war, and with exceptional cruising range. Many Germans believe that the next naval war will not be fought on the water, but below it; that submarines will largely decide the issues to be fought out by rival navies. Besides the formation of an expanding Germany stretching across Central Europe from the Baltic to the Black Sea, we must not forget that distant India has always been a goal for German militarists. How far does Hitler himself believe he will succeed? He certainly holds several good cards in his hands; he

knows exactly what he wants, and by what means be is most likely to get it. These are what I consider he himself believes to be the trump cards m the mailed fist: — (1) The intensive and all-embracing organisation of Germany, coupled with the non-stop determination of the Aazi leaders to succeed at all costs. (2) Hesitation on the part of the democratic Powers, who are naturally doing everything to avoid a European conflagration. (3) The bringing into line of Italy, embarrassed by the Abyssinian nar and its legacy of marked worries and troubles. Into a secondary status ot importance. (4) The German General fetan today is more efficient than at any time during the last war. Also, it should be more widely realised that with the arrival of Hitler the German Beich began to mobilise, not only the industrial, social and agricultural resources of the country, but also the brains. Professors, scientists and chemists, .have been called up to help the I\az drive to power. Intensive preparations have been going on in Germany for five years. Hitler’s preparations are thoroughly in accordance with the spirit and temper of the man. A Germany armed at all points, with risks reduced to a minimum. The Germans have been working hard to systematise defensive measures against potential aircraft attack ; their chemists have been busy on new gases and devices to incapacitate airplanes as well as men. Stores of ammunition in large quantities must now be ready, the whole country has been divided into military areas, and training on the most up-to-date scale is carried out, so that by now well over three millions have passed through a highly-developed system of instruction and military schooling. The Germans have always placed a high value on the machine-gun; they are doing so more than ever now, and I should estimate their numbers in this respect to be beyond the twenty-thou-sand mark. Many methods of creating synthetic war materials have been investigated and some of them perfected.

In short, let us be under no delusion whatever that here is a nation determined to be number one on the Continent, and that no one in Germany can question the decrees of the German General Staff.

As yet, everything is not ready. The Germany of Hitler is not yet in a position to fulfil the complete programme, but it is in point of preparation and thoroughness a long way ahead of what many people think.