EXPANSIONIST REICH

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 6, 7 July 1939, Page 9

EXPANSIONIST REICH

PART OF NEW MILITARY PACT

TO AID BLACKMAIL

(By "Senex.")

Whatever is afoot in Danzig, and all reports received by air mail indicate that observers in the capitals of Europe are very disturbed about the situation there, despite the reassuring statements from Berlin, it is obvious that the period of adventures for the Axis Powers is not over.

A perusal of the speeches made by Count Ciano and Herr yon Ribbentrop after the signing of the ItaloGerman military alliance makes it clear, as does the pact itself, that this is a business arrangement intended to levy further blackmail on their opponents and that plans are already laid to exploit whatever situation may offer the opportunity of a qutck and easy profit. Also the alliance drops all pretence of being aimed against Communism, the bogy which has been raised so often, and on the whole so effectively, in aid of the imperialist plans of the Fascist Powers. The new treaty is directed against the democracies. It was described by Count Ciano as being inspired by a determination "to demand that the knots still throttling the life out of Europe be undone" and by Herr yon Ribbentrop as created by a situation in which "politicians who are attempting to encircle us [aim at] the maintenance of old injustices whereby Germany and Italy are denied their rightful place in the world, and their due share of the goods of the earth." And in contemplating it Signor Gayda, "Mussolini's mouthpiece," writes pleasantly in the

"Giornale d'ltalia" that Italy, which signed the pact according to Count Ciano, "inspired by the desire to preserve the peace which ever remains her highest goal." has at least 75 divisions, plus "imposing reserves made up of trained classes which are always ready for mobilisation, and which improvised armies like Britain's will not have for many years, [and] always ready for a lightning stroke," while Germany, which did not want any domination over Czecho-Slovakia, has obtained from her "protectorate" over that country "enough modern arms for 40 divisions." "NO PLANS FOR EMPIRE." Moreover, these forces are not to be dissipated in fractional offensives, but will move according to a single ; plan, drawn up with an eye to the situation and to the aims which each : Power pursues. So it is obvious that . Italy, which according to an interview that Signor Mussolini gave the Lon--1 don "Daily Telegraph," was a satis- ; fied Power after the Abyssinian con- ; quest, and Germany which, according to the repeated statements of her leader, had no further territorial am- ■ bitions after the Sudetenland she had i never owned was "returned" to her, are now planning new moves, and dangerous ones. The atmosphere of j ' sweet reasonableness is preserved, I however. . Herr yon Ribbentrop is completely convinced, tike Mr. Savage, that "there is not a single political problem in Europe which cannot be solved by peaceful means, if in all quarters there is the will to do so." Signor Gayfla, after Abyssinia and Albania and Corfu, and the peace settlement at which Italy insisted on having Fiume, whether or not it held a large number of Yugoslavs, is able to coo that "in the definition of vital spaces [of Italy and Germany] there is no idea of tracing plans for hegemony or for political and economic control and dominion over other nations." It is all very touching, but somehow, to anyone who knows recent history, it does not convince. HISTORY IS REPEATED. For the purpose of advancing the plans of the Axis Powers, it must be noted there is now in existence a joint commission which is charged with defining their aims, agreeing on' a common policy towards '"hose aims, devising methods for supporting one another diplomatically, and, if this fails, providing armed support. And while these things are happening the days before 1914 are strangely repeated, with Britain, as in 1906, holding military conversations with France and proceeding from them, wita reluctance, but from a conviction of necessity, to conclude a pact with Russia, a country owning a form of government viewed with distaste by the British leaders. As in 1914, it may be added. I Italy has attached herself to the rival ] camp under revealed terms which have nourshed the British hope that if Germany wages an offensive war Italy will j not stand beside her. The reference of Count Ciano to the military pact preserving "the security of living space" is held to support this view. And other things also indicate that there may be some truth in it. The Germans, as usual, know just what they hope to get out of the new military alliance, the Italians apparently do not. I The Reich has replaced the old claim j of the right of Germans to return to their homeland with a new claim for more "living space" for those Germans who have returned. THE ACCENTS OF "MEIN KAMPF." Once again we hear the accents of the too long neglected "Mem Kampf," the crazy book which did not seem i real, and which is now being written , into the history of Europe in such large part: "If the National Socialist movement really has the consecration of a great ideal it must lead the German people out of the narrowness of their present living space." And to this we, might add another quotation from the same book: "An alliance which does not include the intent to wage war is senseless and valueless." So, while the Italians are indefinite as to their aims, and apparently would be satisfied with a readjustment of the policy pursued by France in Tunisia, some control of Jibuti, and a share in the direction of the Suez Canal, the Germans mean to enlarge their system of "protectorates"—vassal States which will accept the manufactures of the highly-industrialised Reich and j ship her in return the raw materials and the food which, despite her confl-j dent claims, she has never been able j to grow for herself. Herr Hitler has i 'already declared Central Europe a| German preserve and warned great | Powers off, while telling smaller : Powers that if they wish to have ( bonds with those other nations it can! ' only be at the price of German dis- : j pleasure. The old aim is revived; it I is, quite simply, the dominion of Europe, economic if not political, from , the Baltic to the Black Sea. And there ' ; is a modified supplementary plan for | Scandinavia and the Baltic States, bordering the "German Sea." For advancing these purposes, it is apparent, the new alliance which Dr. Walter Funk has christened a "verbundwirth- j schaft," or a "compound economy," is I certain to be used.