ARBITERS OF PEACE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 79, 30 September 1938, Page 7

ARBITERS OF PEACE

CHAMBERLAIN AND HITLER

Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and the embodiment of orthodox Conservatism, and Adolf Hitler, Fuhrer of the German people, the son of a peasant cobbler, who has been brought by the play of events to the leadership of a great nation—these two men of widely differing background and temperament now hold between them the issue of peace or war in Europe, says a writer in the "Sydney Morning Herald." ; Mr. Chamberlainj now in his seventieth year, was already nearly 50 when, he first entered the political arena. Behind him lay a solid and excellent record of municipal administration. For the next eighteen year* he was destined from Whitehall to concern himself principally with such. questions as public health and housing, the City, and finance. Hard-working, efficient, with a; strong mind of his own, and, in later! years, it is believed, with a certain adr miration for the efficiency of the1 dictators, Chamberlain came to thei Prime Ministership of Britain last year with the impelling desire to leave his mark as the peacemaker of Europe., Without any special and detailed, knowledge of foreign affairs, and with, a marked distrust of those who had, he believed thathe could see the path', along which peace might be found. HITLER'S BEGINNINGS. _ "Herr Hitler had a difficult upbringing. He was so weakly that his schooling was interrupted for a year, and he was rejected for military service. He was trained for nothing, and in his early years worked as' a labourer in Vienna. But in 1912 he left there for Munich, where for two years he found life more pleasant. The war years from 1914 to 1918 saw him on service on the Western front, and he bears today the physical signs of that service. The closing days of the wan had settled his mind as to the future. "On November 9, 1918," he has himself declared, "I resolved to become • politician." In September of the following year, the former Corporal Hitler was enrolled as a member of the German. Workers' Party at Munich, one of the many political parties formed at the time. Hitler soon obtained control, and, in the following year .the fuller title, the National Socialist Party, was adopted. The rapid growth ,of the party in numbers and J influence wa» phenomenal, but _it was not until 1933,. however, that a Government led by Hitler assumed power.- • ';': ,:; Chamberlain has little of the populafi political figure about him. His gifts? have everywhere been admired and acknowledged. But he has. none of the: gifts which stir the crowd: He hasihbiie; of the exuberant features to help the] cartoonist, such as Mr. Lloyd George ob our own Mr. Hughes nas had, and has no oratory to speak of. His. voic§ is cold and efficient. Thus, Chamberlain is a statesman first, and a personality; only in a secondary way. GREAT POPULAR APPEAL. The Fuhrer is stocky in figure, of?----medium height, and dignified, gait and carriage. His eyes are dark . and piercing, and he talks:; $rith >;*;great earnestnessr, giving an immediate im- '■; pressibn of sincerity. Irif Ms- speeches fie has an enormous popular appeal. He arouses his audience by projecting his personality and ideas into their minds. In the process, he reaches ai state almost of mystical exaltation/To his foreign admirers, indeed, he' is a practical mystic—a rare combination of dreamer and doer. It is rare to see Hitler except in! uniform. This is almost invariably a1 khaki drill tunic, embellished by hiis . war decoration of the Iron Gross. Only at a formal dinner, party at his official residence does he appear in the conventional dress coat and white waistcoat. This preference .for a simple military costume emphasises that Hitler still considers his task to be a militant crusade. In his private life, he is almost an ascetic. He eats no meat, and has followed Mussolini•-..in-giving up both alcohol and tobacco. He takes practically no exercise, and hi» only recreations are listening tp; classical music and watching films -in, th# cinema theatre which he added' to. th# Chancellor's Palace in Berlin. \ One of Chamberlain's virtues is an' urideviating realism which will not allow him to wrap himself in the mists of romance. He is not, it has been said, blind to the call of far horizons, because he sees the barbed wire immediately before his feet; but he will never pretend that the barbed, wire does not exist He dislikes vagueness and laziness .in-lactibn -as much as he dislikes them in thought; and he is the son of his great father -in his capacity for "getting things done" when once he has made up his mind that they are necessary. Britain owes to him a Idt for the speed and efficiency of her ret armament. ■ ■■■■■!■ i '.: Chamberlain's work until he became Prime Minister was in the realm of finance, the City, and Social Reform. He approaches foreign politics as a business man, imbued with a sense of realism. ~ •' . ;;• Foreign policy, Hitler believes, must consist in. forking, exclusively for priefs own nation. And in, pursuit. of; the national aims, "all-considerations of internal politics, religion; and humanity, in brief, every other consideration whatsoever, must be pitilessly elimin- - ated." Germans who live outside the present boundaries of the Reich are; all assumed to be oppressed, and they will not be reincorpbrated in the mother country "by inflamed protests., but :by vigorous blows of the sword." To forge that sword has been the sacred task of the Nazi Party. . : ... —_, Two advisers of the Prime Ministers mission are Sir Horace Wilson andjMOr. William Strang. Sir Horace Wilson veai for some years a: high official at the Ministry of Labour, where he achieved such fame as a negotiator in industrial disputes that, in 1930, he was appointed to the new post of Chief Industrial Adviser. This title gives no indication of the wide scope of his activities. He has been right-hand man to both Earl Baldwin and Mr. Chamberlain, and his counsel and help, have been sought in many matters quite unconnected with industry. Mr. William Strang, who is forty-five years of age, has spent all his life in the Foreign Office, where he now ranks as a Counsellor. He has served in Moscow and Belgrade, > and has a special knowledge of the Russian and