The Evening Star MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1939. "THE FUHRER WISHES IT SO.”

Evening Star, Issue 23422, 13 November 1939, Page 6

The Evening Star MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1939. " THE FUHRER WISHES IT SO.”

The mentality of a section of tlio German people who believe that peace will come without fighting " because our Fuhrer wishes it so " must remain a puzzle to those brought up in democratic countries. The German nation is by no means lacking in brilliant cultural achievement, but day by day further evidenco is being vouchsafed that among tho rank and file beliefs most natural to the Middle Ages still exist. From prisoners' mouths, it is reported, comes the echo, " There will bo no war. The Fuhrer wishes it so." Actually, of course, there is a war now. In ferocity it may not, happily enough, have reached a tempo consonant with the public's apprehensive idea of what a war to-day could be like, yet the strain and the burden of it are ever--present and young lives are being lost. When will the German people wake up to the fact that none of their Fuhrer's boastful prophecies for the year 1939 has come true? Poland was not conquered'without sacrifice. Nor has Nazi prestige been enhanced by the " rat-in-a-corner " approaches to Soviet Russia. No doubt Hitler expected a " walkover " in Poland after the Russian agreement was signed, and in assuming that the campaign would be bloodless he revealed a tragic ignorance of the ways of tho world outside Germany. It is now more obvious than over that he does not want to plunge his country into a violent international conflict. In many ways his Nazi war machine may be compared with the bully who fancies he is adding a little more to his lustre every time he dominates a weaker opponent. "Our Fuhrer" shows not the slightest inclination to tackle antagonists of his own calibre until he has exhausted all possible methods of attempting to split the Allies and gain further strategic advantages by subduing smaller countries. The alternative motive behind aggression on a large scale would be realisation that the task of saving his face in the eyes of his followers could no longer be delayed. Unfortunately the Nazi menace does not now all centre on Hitler, for, as Sir Edward Grigg, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Information, has just declared in a speech,, Hitlerism, which we are pledged to destroy, is something much stronger and more penetrative than the mind and character of a single man. It is true that there..would be. no Hitler to-day if the German people were not susceptible to crude and brutal leadership. The forces of evil have found ready agents in Germany for promulgation of their terrors, and all possible endeavours at fair appeasement have been treated with contempt. The British Empire must and will at all times avoid an exasperating " holier than thou " attitude, but it is a matter of extreme difficulty to imagine in any nation of the Commonwealth the perpetration of the barbarities that marked the activities of the medieval regime in Germany right down from the massed executions ordered by Hitler in 1934 to the latest concentration camp terrorism. But, in spite of all this, the world must have faith in the German people as a whole. Although it appears inevitable, despite the noble peace appeals emanating from the ruling monarchs of Holland and Belgium, that Hitlerism will have to be smashed through the arbitrament of the sword, the signing of peace must usher in a new era of tolerance, goodwill, and belief in the ultimate triumph of right over evil. In his address Sir Edward Grigg said that we must strive for the economic welfare not merely of the victorious countries, but of Europe as a. whole. Nobody can deny that the Powers' ability to make a just peace must be proved indelibly when the time comei.