IF THE NAZIS TRIUMPHED

Grey River Argus, 18 December 1940, Page 8

IF THE NAZIS TRIUMPHED

What Would England be Like Under Fascist Rule ? By George Strauss, M.P., in the Tribune ONE STILL HEARS IT SAID that “there is little or no difference between Capitalist democracy and Fascism.’ To those who think so, we commend the following article from the London TRIBUNE by George Strauss, Labour M.P. in the House of Commons. In the same context we can recommend two books. The first, “Swastika Night,” by Murray Constantine, is a recent Left Book Club choice, and gives a relentless picture of what human life several centuries hence will be like, if the! Nazis succeed in esta lishing a strangle-hold on the world. The second book is Loss of Eden,” by Douglas Brown and Christopher Serpell (Faber & Faber) wherein the authors describe in cruelly graphic terms the inevitable consequences, to the British people, of a premature peace with- Hitler.—Ed.

(For reasons of space we omit the first few paragraphs of Mr Strauss’s article. —Ed).

IT IS WORTH WHILE considering what such a peace (i.e., a peace which would leave Nazism intact) .would mean. The first point we must beat - in mind is that the actual terms he (Hitler) offered us would have no importance whatsoever. '.Once our resistance were ended while his military machine remained intact, he would impose on us such conditions as he pleased. Fortunately we have ample evidence to judge what those conditions would be.

All forms of democratic government would disappear overnight British Fascists would become the nominal rulers of the country Sir Oswald Mosley, or some other Nazi nominee, would occupy No. 10 Downing Street, and his thugs become the Ministers of State. But the real master of the land would be Hitler, who would, at the first possible moment, bring a large part of his army here to keep order. With the Army would come Himmler’s Gestapo.

Doubtless in the early days of the occupation every attempt W’ould be made to conciliate the public. Soft words would be spoken, line promises" made, while our weapons of resistance were being destroyed. Once that process were finished we would be held down with ruthless barbarity as slaves of our conquerors.

Here, as in Germany, every Trade Union, Labour, Liberal and progressive organisaiton would be disbanded. Its friends would be seized, and its officials, if they were lucky, thrown into concentration carffps. And it is no use deluding ourselves by the belief that this is impossible, because our Labour and Trade Union movements would be able to prevent it. The Trade Unions in Germany with double the membership of ours, were unable to effect the smallest resistance once Hitler had obtained power.

To show that they would stand no nonsense, the Nazis would follow their usual practice of shooting the potential trouble-makers in every town and village. They would do this as readily as they are to-day bombing and machine-gunning defenceless citizens. All Labour Councillors who refused completely to toe the line would assuredly be their first choice. i

There would be no means of resistance to this savagery. Mass demonstrations? —what can unarmed people do against soldiers and ma-chine-guns, or bombs dropped from aeroplanes? Strikes? —what use would they be with no organisations or money behind the strikers?

Having broken all possibility of public resistance the Nazis would then use British resources and manpower for their main purpose. That purpose has been widely proclaimed by their leaders. It is to establish Ihe German people as the HERRENVOLK (the master people) of the world. This position can only be achieved and mainatined by armed power. The Americas and the Soviet Union yet remain to be conquered. Britain would be turned into an arsenal for this end. Its people would by drained white to' make Germany strong enough for their next conquest. «****♦. Every man and woman would be forced to work making war materials for 'Germany. Their real wages, whatever they might be nominally, would be less than one-third of their pre-war wages. There would be no alternative to accepting these conditions, for unemployment pay and public assistance \Vould not be available to any family where a wageearner refused a job at the pay offered.

It would be unreasonable to expect Dr. Ley, the Minister of Labour to allow the standard of life of the de-

feated British workers to be higher than that of the German workers.

To feed-' the hungry German bellies, our farms would be denuded of their cows, sheep and pigs. Our reserves of foodstuffs would be shipped away. We would be cut off from our imports on which we depend to teed two-thirds of our population. There would be starvation in every home with the possible exception of the very rich. Disease would increase a hundredfold.

The Nazis would use British workmen directly to develop their own industries, as they have done with Czechs, Polish and Dutch workmen. They would ‘ force hundreds of thousands to take employment in Germany. If any man refused his family would receive no unemployment pay. ****** Every form of brutality which the Nazis have imposed on their own minorities would be imposed on ours. Why should they show any tenderi'ess for the hated English? Concentration camps would be set up to confine all those whose record had shown them to be hostile to Fascism. Socialists, Liberals, Jews, Nonconformists and independents of every description would be plhced in these camps. True, they would contain a considerable proportion of our population, but that does not deter Fascist rulers. The Spanish Government ciaim to have a million of their people interned, and our population is more than double theirs. We may be sure that the tortures which are the persistent feature of the German concentration camps would not be basent from those established here.

No opinions could be expressed contrary to the Nazi regime. Only those books, magazines and newspapers could be published which contained no reference to the ideals of liberty and democracy. No criticism of our Nazi governors, spoken or printed, would be permitted. We would only get such news of events at home and abroad as Dr. Goebbels wish to give us. And that news would be nine-tenths lies. Listening to foreign radio programmes would be punishable by long terms of imprisonment.

Children would be given polluted education. They would be trained to be good Nazis and adore Hitler, “hey would be taught to spy on theii parents and report to the authorities any words which might be considered disrespectful to the Nazi regime.

Privacy would disappear. We would be watched ceaselessly and imprison ed without trial at the whim of the local Gestapo. There would be no means of throwing off the yoke. Wf would b eunarmed and powerless We would be deprived of all those de ; mocratic safeguards which we have 1 gained through generaitons of suffering. We would be the defenceless slaves i’of degenerate and sadistic tyrants.

A fantastic nightmare? But a nightmare which would be quickly translated into cold reality here in England if the Germans were to win. It is reality to-day in many of the countries that Germany has smashed.

If there are any who now, or after further and possibly worse bombing, should permit the thought of Peace tto come into their minds, let them realise what Peace would mean while the Nazis remain in power in Germany. It woffl'd be the beginning and not the end of their suffering. The alternative is not between war and peace, but between war and a living death.

And let us all further realise that when we eventually win through to victory, we will not only be safeguarding ourselves against this living death, we will also be rescuing millions of others throughout Europe from the agonies of Hell'l. GEORGE STRAUSS