FRENCH WRITER'S VIEW

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 92, 20 April 1939, Page 9

FRENCH WRITER'S VIEW

EXHAUSTION OF DEMOCRACIES

PROGRAMME OF ECONOMIC

ATTRITION

(B7 Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) XEeceived April 20, 10.40 a.m.)

PARIS, April x*. The foreign commentator "Pertinax," in an article in the paper "L'Ordre" reviewing the international situation, says: "The main difference between the position now and seven months ago is that then the dictators' aims were clear, but it is now impossible to say at which of the many conceivable targets they will strike first.

"Nevertheless, competent military authorities in Parisand London have reached the conclusion that no serious decision to make war has yet been reached in Berlin—not to^ mention Rome, which is dropping more and more into the position of a junior associate deprived of any will of her own. "Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini no longer believe that victory can come as a result of weakening the position of certain statesmen or by the manoeuvres of a few witting pv unwitting accomplices. They are now working to undermine the morale of the democratic peoples themselves.

"They aim at forcing 1 the democracies to take unceasing' military precautions and to throw them into an ever more exhausting1 armaments race, hold up business, discourage investment, check the circulation of capital, and unbalance Budgets. The programme presupposes that the two aggressors can continue to surmount their domestic difficulties and escape the consequences of the torture they propose to reserve for others, but a number of indications point to the conclusion that they have reached a stage of economic distress where they are no longer able to meet their armaments requirements." "Pertinax" urges the democracies to counter the total?tarians* programme of economic attrition with econonvsanctions.