OTAGO WOOL CHEQUE

Evening Post, Issue 77, 31 March 1936, Page 10

OTAGO WOOL CHEQUE

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

DUNEDIN, This Day.

To date this season- Otago wool has realised £1,343,880, with ■ a further £345,000 expected from Thursday's sale. Last year's realisation was only £789,530. Poland only if the League declared Germany to be the aggressor or in any dispute in the , east. And Stresemann who said "Locarno preserves the Rhineland . and allows us to recoup ourselves in the east" also declared that "next time" Germany must be careful not to be guilty of. the error of open aggression. The rise of Hitler, however, changed the attitude of France. A Germany which will tolerate Hitler, in the mind of the French, is in the mood for aggression. Thus while Stresemann could view the Franco-Polish pact without concern, Hitler, according to France, objected to the Franco-RuSsian Treaty purely because he was hatching some plans. THE CHANGE. Today Germany is no longer the nation of Locarno. She is within sight of her old strength and no longer needs the treaty to protect her territory from French occupation. Today France is in her old position of .being the weaker nation. She has erected great fortifications along the frontier, but with the demilitarised zone vanished she cannot be sure of their strength. Germany need fear no French attack unless there is concerted action by the League Powers; France's old fear of invasion has reappeared in aggravated form. For there is a further point. Germany, if she fortifies her own frontier, may make her position in the west impregnable and be free to play any hand she chooses in the east. ■ She has been busy for years in transferring her war industries away from the west ■ out of reach of air attack. She has never abandoned her dream of the union with. Austria. She has never removed her eyes from the strip of territory which separates East Prussia from the Reich. Thus it is in the interest of European well-being, in the view of the French, that the demilitarised zone should remain.. Otherwise Germany is given.a.free hand in the east. Moreover, if the final word be said, demilitarisation ,of the Rhineland is something concrete, a first line of defence, and no mere treaty. For the French do not trust Hitler, they view any concessions as wasted on a man who will only interpret them as a sign of weakness and immediately set out to exploit them for Germany's military advancement. There will be no retreat from full/insistence upon i France's full righs under the Treaty of Locarno so long: as the Nazis remain in power. . .