PROFESSOR S. H. ROBERTS AND “HITLER’S VICTORY.”

Evening Star, Issue 23093, 20 October 1938, Page 20

PROFESSOR S. H. ROBERTS AND “HITLER’S VICTORY.”

TO TOE EDITOR. Sir, —Referring to an article as above, reproduced by you from the ' Sydney Morning Herald,' may 1 be allowed to comment? As an exposition of the stupendously dangerous position in Central Europe it deserves the gratitude' of every good British subject. It is so lucid and so fair that it leaves us Britishers gasping why the Almighty ever allowed Germany to rind a placo on the map of Europe, or why, when it was just aoo'ut wiped off, He should have allowed the unspeakable Hitler to put it back on the map. What right have, the Germans to dominate Central Europe and strive for an open route eastward if it should not suit Britain Absolutely monstrous! The idea of " the FrancoRussian Alliance being so weakened as to be worthless " (to us, of course) and " Britain and France shrinking in importance behind the JJaginot line " is enough to raise our righteous indignation to boiling point, because is not Britain the one and only altruistic nation on the globe with a. divine right to all it has absorbed and a divine mission to dominate the rest and expand further? We do not want a strong, united Power in Central Europe or anywhere else; we want small nations who quarrel with each other and have to come to us for help (on easy terms!) when they have bled each other white. With the help of the professor we see John Bull leading the procession of saints with an extra size in halos (British-made) lound his head. Nevertheless, to save ourselves from bursting with conceit, it is good sometimes to " see ourselves as others see us," and, therefore, 1 append a kindly criticism which was penned, not by an enemy, but by a friend and ally. ' Under it we can see the halo dissolving and in its place quite clearly a couple of horns appear, while in the nether extremities a cloven hoof is sticking out, and somewhere round the centre curls a barbed tail.

I don’t know that this picture should | be taken too seriously, any more than I the professor’s German nightmare. Properly the triangular mud-slinging match should be completed by a gentle word of protest Irom a German source at the time when the amiable French placed their black cohorts in the Rhineland and demanded that the German people should provide them with brothels. I cannot lay my hand on it just now. It scorns hard to cultivate brotherly love among the nations, albeit some professors are doing their best. Has Professor Roberts ever beard of the mote in the other follow’s eye? May I suggest to him an operation to bis own so that he may be able to see with two eyes and not with one (Bri-tish-made) only. Then perhaps he will be able to_ discern through the mist the Power in Europe whose permanent friendship is most worth cultivating.— I am, etc., Cosmopolitan. October IS. [Exci.osuiik.] Henry Beraud, one of the outstanding French journalists and publicists, writing in ‘ Gringoire,’ of October, 1935. declared: “.Mussolini now knows that with regard to Italy as with regard to the whole world, .John Bull has only one policy, the policy of his bankers and merchants, and that the rights and needs of others have no more importance for the City than the skin of a Boer or the empty belly of a Hindu. Listen, John Bull! The traditional principle of your policy, the sole motive of your conduct, the doctrine professed at all times by your publicists and orators and practised at all times by your statesmen is your exclusive interests. It is impossible to remember all the notorious examples of violence, perfidy, implacable egotism, and disloyalty with which your history is sullied.' Disturbing nations ;■ fomenting internal discord in order to exhaust them; arming the nations in the name of their independence. then abandoning them without pity; crushing, expropriating decimating conquered peoples,—all these acts abound in your history. You have

never regarded them as anything but legitimate manifestations of your rights. You have always in all sincerity understood how to subordinate tlie principles of morality and right to the sacred deposit you call British interests. You treat humanity, justice, liberty, peace, and war as business affairs. There is not a nation in the world which has not been the victim of your pride, your violence, your greed, your perfidy, your British honour.”