In the Public Eye

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 82, 3 October 1936, Page 21

In the Public Eye

After almost three and a half years of Nazi rule, Colonel-General Herman Goering, Prime Minister or Prussia and Reich Minister of Aviation, has emerged as Germany's virtual ViceChancellor and successor-designate to Herr Adolf Hitler. Speculation was rife after the death of Hindenburg on August 2, 1934, as to which person might be chosen, who, by special decree of that day, Hitler is empowered to appoint as his successor. This speculation has ceased. In Government circles as well as in the Nazi Party, it is tacitly understood that Hitler's mantle is to fall upon the dashing war ace who holds more offices than any other German. There never has been any public announcement of this. The German Cabinet, however, knows that Goering is the man upon whom, in the last analysis, Hitler relies to carry out his policies. The Cabinet further knows that Goering is to succeed Field-Marshal Werner yon Blomberg as War Minister when this 58-year-old soldier has reached' the retiring age. Goering is only forty-three. Nothing showed more clearly what Goering's position is in the scheme of things than did his appointment, on April 27, as supreme dictator over foreign exchange and raw materials. Not all who read the brief communique could fathom all its implications. It said: , "Inasmuch as, in the handling of questions concerning raw materials and foreign exchange, numerous Government and party offices must cooperate, .the Fuhrer and Reich Chancellor has delegated the examination and execution of all necessary measures. "Prime Minister Colonel-General Goering is authorised in this connection to hear and give instructions to all Government and party offices." Nazi party functionaries as well as Government officials quickly realised that here for the first time someone other than Hitler himself was vested with powers to command both the party and officialdom. In Goering, therefore, Germany now virtually has a Vice-Chancellor who relieves the head of the State of much of the necessity for making decisions. Hitler is more and more ridding himself of administrative and party detail and is attempting to play the more impartial role of Chief of State. He is keeping his mind free for the big issues ahead. As time goes on Hitler probably will do the directing. Goering will do the governing. Lieut.-General J. G. Dill. Lieut.-General John Greer Dill, who is to take charge in Palestine, is particularly well fitted for the supreme command. He lias just given up the post of Director of Military Operations and Intelligence at the War Office and is thoroughly conversant with the military and political situation in Palestine. He will be fifty-five on Christmas Day. In the course of a varied career he has occupied many important posts. During the latter part of the war he was in the Operations Section at G.H.Q. in France. After the war he became instructor at the Staff College at Camberley. He then went to India as Principal General Staff Officer at Quetta, and from there he was recalled to take command of a brigade at Aldershot. After a period as instructor at the Imperial Defence College he became Commandant Of, the Staff College at Camberley. He has been Director of Military Operations for the past two and a half years. In April he led the army delegation at the Staff talks with France. General Dill is an Irishman and an intellectual soldier, with the broad view and great quickness of thought and action. His friends know that he has the qualities of decision and forbearance in the difficult task before him in Palestine. There could have been no better selection. His appointment terminates an arrangement, whereby an Air Force officer —Air-Commodore R. M. Hill —is in control, although the Army provides the greater part of the garrison. Furthermore, in moments of stress, the Army contributes practically the whole of the reinforcements required to deal with disaffection. In the present case, the Army will shortly have contributed no less than twentythree battalions, with attached troops, totalling about 17,000 men. It had been hastily assumed that the success of Air Force control in Irak could be repeated in Palestine. It was a complete failure in the riots of 1929 and the Army had to come to the rescue. Fawzi Koukdji. The violence campaign in Palestine recently has been conducted with far greater cunning and efficiency than before. There are strong indications that it is being directed by a trained mind. This is believed to be a result of the presence in Palestine of the Syrian rebel leader, Fawzi Koukdji, This man, who was trained in the Turkish army, caused a great deal of trouble to the French during the Druse revolt of 1925-26 in Syria. Recently he escaped from Irak, where he served in the army, and published a fiery proclamation during his passage through Trans-Jordan to Palestine, calling on all Arabs to go to the assistance of their kindred in Palestine. It is he who is preparing the report to be submitted to the strike committee.

Amateurish home-made bombs have now been replaced by scientificallymade machines and by traps which are proving extremely dangerous to military lorries and cars. The manufacture of these new bombs is considered to be beyond the ordinary Arab, and the authorities believe them to be the work of young Arabs who some time back visited Russia at the invitation and expense of the Third International. A prominent Arab leader, while expressing the opinion that martial law would rouse the people to worse excesses, admitted that the violence movement had lasted long enough.

The Hon. R. G. Menzies, Federal Attorney-General, who introduced Australia's peace plan in the Federal House this week, is considered to have qualities which will take him a long way. The father of Robert was .rames Menzies, formerly M.L.A. for Lowan. in the Western District of Victoria. The boy received the rudiments of education at a State school. Later he went to Wesley College, and to Melbourne University. A brilliant scholar was this young man. He was also industrious. He took his M.A. degree with the highest honours in Law. In May, 1918,, he was admitted to the Victorian Bar. Mr. Robert Menzies embarked on the difficult and often disappointing profession of a barrister with a fsir wind behind him. In university debating societies he was a leading light, and the gift of speech, plus his academic qualifications, made him much sought after by solicitors looking for a likely junior, He was further helped by his association with Mr. Owen Dixon, now a High Court Judge, in whose chambers he read for six months. At an age when most young barristers are wondering what is to happen to them, Mr. Menzies was enjoying a large and lucrative practice. He was junior to Mr. Owen Dixon in many important High Court cases, and, when his senior "went on the Bench, much of the work in which both had been engaged was taken over by Mr. Menzies. His friends and admirers told him he should go in for politics, where he was sure to come to the top. He was quite willing. In 1928 he made his entry by winning a seat in the Victorian Legislative Council. He had hardly arrived there when he was appointed an Honorary Minister in the McPherson Government. In 1932 he entered the Victorian Legislative Assembly by way of Nunawading, a Melbourne suburban scat with strong Nationalist leanings. A new Cabinet was formed with Sir Stanley Argyle as Premier, and Mr. Menzies, at the age of 38, found himself Attorney-General and Deputy Premier. ' . . He was the youngest man in me Ministry, and, by common consent, the ablest. His prestige as a constitutional lawyer, combined with his platform ability, made him the outstanding figure in Victorian Politics. He was appointed Federal AttorneyGeneral in 1934. Mr. S. Baldwin. Mr Baldwin, but for the factthat he was considered too valuable a departmental Minister by the Coalition Government, might today have been Speaker of the House of Commons instead of Prime Minister. This is one of the many sidelights on politics during the last sixty years revealed for the first time by Sir Charles Petrie in the life of the late Mr Walter Long, the . Conservative statesman, afterwards the first Viscount Long, of Wraxall, which appeared reMr. Speaker Lowther-later Viscount Ullswater— resigned in 1921 the names of Mr. Whitley, Sir Frederick Banbury, and Mr. Baldwin were canvassed among M.P.S. There is now little doubt, in Sir Charles Petrie s view, that Mr. Baldwin was favourite f6r the position. He was then President of the Board of Trade , In reply to a letter from Mr. Walter Long, his old friend, Sir William 8u11,,, a most influential Conservative MjF., wrote: • •■ • ' "We should be delighted to have Stanley Baldwin, but the Government will not allow him to,go because they feel he is more useful where he is— anMr X L go rng,'""the Last of the Squires" —the country gentlemen who ruled England for three centuries—and a member of a historic Wiltshire family, might himself have been Prime Minister. If he had not refused,.in his own words, to "be a party to putting the Unionist cause up to Dutch auction, he would almost certainly, Sir Charles Pe.trie reveals, have been leader of the Conservative Party in succession to Mr. Balfour, later the Earl of Balfour. When Mr. Balfour suddenly resigned on November 8: 1911, the names of both Mr. Long and Mr. Austen Chamberlain (now Sir Austen Chamberlain) were put up for the vacant leadership. Lord Balcarres, now the Earl of Crawfurd and Balcarres, the Chief Government Whip, supported Mr. Chamberlain; Sir Harry Samuel and Sir William Bull supported Mr. Long. These latter were firmly convinced that if Mr. Long consented to stand he would get in. But before approaching him they conducted an exhaustive canvass of the Conservative and Unionist members. This gave Mr. Long, if it came to a ballot, a majority of at least seventy over Mr. Chamberlain. Mr. Long had devoted over thirty years of his life to the Conservative cause and might reasonably expect the reversion of the leadership. On the other hand, his health was bad and he disliked intensely the idea of an "undignified ballot for the leadership of the great Unionist cause." Lord Balcarres tried to persuade him to withdraw in favour of Mr. Chamberlain; Sir William Bull and Sir Harry Samuel to, fight. Hours passed while he fought his struggle with himself. At last Mr. Long declared: "I have determined to retire if Chamberlain will do so also, and then Bonar Law can be unanimously elected leader of the Unionist Party." He then turned to Sir Harry Samuel and said: "Harry, you've got to see to this for me." This was more than the other could stand, and he exclaimed: "I'll be damned if I will." "Am I your leader?" snapped Mr. Long. "Yes, sir." "Why, in God's name, don't you obey me then?" Mr. Long then sent Sir Harry Samuel with a message to Lord Balcarres with the words: "Now then, you go and do as you're told and don't let me hear another word." The message was to the effect that if Mr. Chamberlain would withdraw Mr. Long would do so, too. Mr. Chamberlain agreed and Mr. Bonar Law became leader of the party and subsequently Prime Minister.