WRONG WAYS, AND RIGHT

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 112, 13 May 1937, Page 8

WRONG WAYS, AND RIGHT

When President Woodrow Wilson came to Europe to, attend the Peace Conference lie was reported to have said: "The Germans do everything in the wrong way—if they did not, I would not be here." The Germans perpetrated the "scrap of paper" phrase that will live in history; they used Belgium to get at France, and brought England down on them; later,. they used submarines in a manner that brought America downj on them. Their technique both in | Belgium and in the Atlantic Ocean was brilliant, yet disastrous—in President Wilson's phrase, it was "done in the wrong way." Throughout the Great War they continually did clever things, and then 'reaped whirlwinds that they had ignored. Clever, diabolically clever, was their use of the Goeben to involve Turkey in the Great War; but again, in the long run, it spelled disaster for themselves, and Turkey too. Does this taint still mark the Germany of Hitler? If an observer were to judge by the successive shocks to the nerves of all Germany's neighbours during the last four years,' he might answer yes. But peace-loving people do not give that answer; they have not given up hope that Germany may yet walk in the way of peace rather than in a way that risks war. This hope is strengthened by the fact that while the cold glance has been turned by .Italy on the Coronation ceremonial in Britain (though not by Italians in the Dominions) Germany, through Press and official circles, has paid warm tributes. For once, Germany has chosen the right way. The, Coronation could, indeed, prove to be a turning-point. At various'times in recent years Mr. Baldwin has tried' to -clean the slate and induce Germany to write a new record. Notwithstanding the ignored questionnaire, Britain still seeks Germany's aid in a European settlement. A new King, a new; beginning! The new Ambassador, Sir Neville Henderson, has voiced such a message in eloquent terms, and Herr Hitler has adequately replied, pointing Out in an indirect manner that there are questions to be solved. But his polite way of putting it is that there is "no ques- j tion that cannot be solved." Here, again, it is a matter of doing things iin the right way or in the wrong way. If a German Government has as its objective the return of some of its colonies, do the treaty-breaking reentry of the Rhineland and similar mailed-fist tactics constitute an ideal preparation for an uncompelled redistribution of overseas territories by armed Powers possessing as much pride as Germany? If German ruthlessness in 1916-17 was sufficiently wrong in American.eyes to draw the United States into the Great War, are the Hitler record and the Hitler speeches since 1932 sufficiently right to draw Germany's neighbours into the peaceful co-operation of which Herr Hitler speaks? Nevertheless, if the crowning of George VI meansa new slate between Britain and Germany, so be it. The German papers today speak fair; and Germany, it is hoped, will act fair. But the Italian papers speak hostility. Does this mean that the Italian Administration (not the Italian people) is adopting the "wrong way" that changed the course of President Woodrow Wilson in 1916-17?

Peoples in mass do not take much notice of rejected questionnaires, but the masses of the British people do notice that at the moment of their national celebration there is one European Power that is making a parade of unfriendliness, and there is another Power, which, though unsatisfied, has spoken of the Coronation the right word. That distinction strikes home t6 trie hearts of the people. The Italian Government is guilty of bad manners and worse diplomacy. Therefore any sign of blue in the German sky is the more welcomed.