Evening Post. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1938. PLEBISCITES UNDER THE SWORD

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 75, 26 September 1938, Page 8

Evening Post. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1938. PLEBISCITES UNDER THE SWORD

It would be self-deception to believe that the course followed by HenHitler towards Czechoslovakia bears any relation to justice, liberty, or truth. Nevertheless He it Hitler is still trying, however hypocritically, to impart to his demands the complexion or the semblance of fair international dealing; and his claims to fairness are entitled to be dispassionately examined, even though the world knows that behind them is that threat of brute force which vitiates even a fair-seeming approach. Unfortunately the only authoritative or semi-authoritative document that we have before us at time of writing is the United Press Association's vei> sion of Herr Hitler's plan, and much essential detail is missing. Two main points are Czech withdrawal from certain areas (undefined) before October 2, and plebiscites in "areas requiring a clear definition" before November 25. The time-limits represent pure force. The plebiscilary proposals represent the complexion of fairness, but analysis of them is rendered difficult by the fact that the Press Association's summary does not define the question io be put, and gives no clue as to how "areas requiring a clear definition' are to be distinguished from areas not requiring definition. Let it be assumed, for argument's sake, that a defined area is an area of Czechoslovakia where it is agreed that the percentage of population that is racially German is well above 50 per cent.; and that an undefined area is an area where it is a matter of dispute whether the racially German population is more or less than half. Apparently the people in the undefined areas are to be asked to vote, before November 2.5, as to whether they will remain in Czechoslovakia or join Germany. Is it equally to be assumed that the so-called defined areas, where Germanic population predominates, are to automatically "return to Germany," as the Nazis phrase it? As they were not a part of the old Germany, but of the old Austria-Hungary, they cannot "return" to Germany—but let that pass. Any Nazi claim to fairness must be based on the plebiscitary elements, and on the carrying out of plebiscites "under the control of an international commission." But the Saar plebiscite, which the Nazis have quoted, is no precedent. The Saar population voted, under international control, for return to Germany (and this really was return) at a time when the Hitler armed forces and the Hitler threat, as the world knows them today, did not exist. There had heen no Austrian seizure when the Saar voted, and no German Dictator mobilised then, nor did he fix timelimits, The democratic plebiscitary dress donned by Nazi militarism is therefore of the thinnest material. It is a democratic complexion with which the German Dictator rouges himself in order not to save his own face— he is grinning behind the transparent disguise—but in order to save the face of war-fearing democracies that are -willing to be tolerant of deceptions in order to maintain peace. Peace-seeking democratic Governments cannot climb down to the point of openly accepting peace-at-any-price; and Herr Hitler's« plebiscites are a means of facilitating their descent, though he and they know that his plebiscitary proposals represent not the expression of democracy but the degradation of it. Herr Hitler enters the temple of democracy to mock and not to pray. But because Czechoslovakia looks so small, and a world-war looks so large, when put against each other in the scales, it is calculated in Germany that the democratic Governments will still cling to peace, grasping at the straw of pseudo-democracy that his plan offers. The calculation can still be upset, however, by Czechoslovakia herself, should she refuse to evacuate the designated Germanoccupational area before October 2. The immediate danger, then, is that the occupational demand will precipitate a war that the plebiscitary pretences are ostensibly designed to prevent. If the Czechs fight, the plebiscites become waste paper. And with them will disappear a piece of anti-democratic hypocrisy. But with them may also go the last faint hope of avoiding a catastrophe to civilisation.