The Evening Star FRIDAY, AUGUST 25, 1939. “IMMINENT PERIL OF WAR.”

Evening Star, Issue 23354, 25 August 1939, Page 8

The Evening Star FRIDAY, AUGUST 25, 1939. “IMMINENT PERIL OF WAR.”

The Soviet-German pact, as its terms are officially reported from Berlin, is worse than was predicted. There is no clause providing that in the event of either party committing an act of aggression the other may denounce the agreement. Russian officials were reported as emphasising, after the first shock of surprise, that the Germans were not left at liberty to attack Poland. A clause was being inserted, it was stated, to make that plain. The clause does not appear in the German version, and if that was a distortion or imperfect a correction would reasonably be expected to have come from Russia before now. The agreement lays down that in no circumstances shall the two Powers attack each other. On the contrary, they are to keep touch with each other, consulting on questions touching their common interests. The professed incompatibles, Nazism and Communism, are reconciled. Stalin takes Hitler, not precisely to his bosom, but to his side. The Anglo-French delegates are leaving Moscow. There seems no escape from the conclusion that they were deliberately deceived —■ kept dangling on until the rival pact, which w f as to make a mock of their discussions, was completed. Better the deception now than later, if the world is to be embroiled in war. Care would probably be taken that no too secret matters, to be passed on now to Germany, would be confided to Russian army chiefs in those staff talks. Japan is dropped by her confederates as cynically as Britain was deceived. In that there may be advantage for the peacedesiring Powers. The issue rests with Herr Hitler. If he attacks Poland, nobody else will be responsible for war. And Hitler, as Lord Baldwin was impressing a few days ago, is not normal. Mussolini might • restrain him, but that seems too much to hope for. It is doubtful if even a decision by America ranging herself at once to the full extent on the side of the peace front would intimidate him at this stage. Everything happening in Europe speaks of preparations for war. “ War,” says Mr F. A. Voigt, In hjs profound book, ‘Unto Caesar,’ “ whether masquerading as i sanctiqas 1 or not, is

a calamity of such an awful kind and (even when used by a Great Power to coerce a small one) so uncontrollable an instrument and so full of uncertainty, that any Government committing a country to war, except to defend the lives and the present and future happiness of its people against a moral danger, deserves to bo swept out of existence.” That has been the faith of Mr Chamberlain. But who can doubt that, if Herr Hitler (persists in what appears to he his attempt to reduce Poland to the subject conditions of Czechoslovakia, the 'exceptional circum-. stances, for Great Britain, will have arisen? Austria, the Sudetenland, Bohemia and Moravia, Memelland — the victims have been too many. The British Parliament will decide the issue for Britain, and, given the last provocation, there can bo no doubt how it will decide it. It is to be imagined there will he small difference of opinion. If the worst arbitrament should be the only one, Britain will be in a vastly better position than she was- in a year ago to confront it. For that thanks will be due to her Prime Minister. Mr Chamberlain has told the House of Commons that the country faces the imminent peril of war. Powers are still working to avert it. The Pope has made his plea. Mr Roosevelt has appealed to the King of Italy to urge a settlement by peaceful conversations, but that is unlikely to suit the Fascist book. The Oslo Powers—Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Norway, Luxemburg, Denmark, and Finland — are urging avoidance of catastrophe. But their combined armaments, it is probable, would merely move the Dictators to smiles. In their eyes nothing has influence except force. The British Empire is united. A hundred signs—or seeming signs—will have persuaded the Axis Powers that it is not, but they do not understand the ways of free democracies, which criticise their Governments and their institutions to the lasi point and, when they are convinced on an issue, support them more assuredly and further because they.are fully informed. It is not merely unselfishness—which the Dictators might distrust—that makes the far-flung States of the Empire one in their resistance to aggression; selfpreservation would bind them to the same course,. Herr Hitler has been informed, in terms that should be unmistakable, where the British Government stands on this present issue; the peoples of the totalitarian States know only what their rulers think fit to tell them. The, way is still open for peace, if Herr . Hitler will accept -it. We in New Zealand here are furthest from this threatened conflict, but we shall know far too much about it if it happens. Feelings of unity, among ourselves and, with Great Britain in the face of crisis, which were expressed by Mr Hamilton and the Acting Prime Minister (Hon. P. Fraser) in the House on Wednesday night were symptomatic of relations throughout the entire Empire.