THE H.B. TRIBUNE MONDAY, MARCH 16, 1936 WILL HITLER RELENT?

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 80, 16 March 1936, Page 6

THE H.B. TRIBUNE MONDAY, MARCH 16, 1936 WILL HITLER RELENT?

■Whatever may be the eventual outcome, it is quite manifest that the tension arising between France and Belgium, on the one hand, and Germany, on the other, from Germany’s practical renunciation of the Locarno Treaty has reached a stage when only the most careful and delicate handling of the situation will avert very grave consequences. It is also fairly clear that all three disputants are looking to Great Britain as the main, possibly deciding, influence in bringing about some understanding that will prove mutually acceptable to them. As to the difficulties in the way of acting as an effective conciliator the further speech of Herr Hitler reported to-day affords ample evidence.

It will be noted at the outset that before the League Council the British Foreign Minister emphasised the desire of his Government to co-operate with the Council “in its endeavours to establish peace and understanding on a firm and enduring foundation.” In this there is no suggestion of war or of any need for recourse to war. We may also fairly read into the relatively restrained language in which the French and Belgian Ministers presented their respective cases the result of prior conversations among all three Ministers as to the procedure to be followed. Neither M. Flandin nor M. van Zeeland, as both or either, and especially the latter, might very well have done, made any reference to the gross violation of Belgium’s guaranteed neutrality which marked the opening of the Great War and then gave Germany the immense initial military advantage which laid Belgium at her feet and closely threatened Paris. The preliminary situation is so very much the same now that both France and Belgium might very well have been pardoned for drawing attention to the fact. As it was they would seem to have confined themselves to setting out the present position entirely on its own merits without any reference to recent historical precedents. As for Herr Hitler he would appear to be possessed by some evil demoniac spirit that prevents him from listening to anything but its own urgings, and, worst of all, he has evidently infected the whole nation with it. The very extravagance of his utterances and the loud acclaim with which they are received, let alone his provocative, not to say contemptuous, actions, are quite sufficient to show Iha* both he and his people are for the moment bereft of their reasoning powers. All have been brought up to such a pitch of nationalistic exaltation that external realities

have little chance of making any appeal to them. They have all gone virtually Berserk as the result of the heathenish racial doctrines that have been instilled into them, making Germany as great a danger to the world’s peace as she was under the Kaiser in 1914. If we are to accept what the cable tells us, Der Fuhrer’s dementia is so intense that he utterly refuses to pay any heed to words of reason even coming from those of his own national counsellors ■who see economic disaster, if nothing worse, staring them in the face. It is under conditions such as these that the League Council, as the arbiter provided by the Locarno Treaty itself, has to enter upon its deliberations. It is for it to say whether any violation of the Treaty has been committed and by whom. Then it is incumbent on each of the signatories to “come immediately to the assistance of the Power against whom the act complained of is directed.” Its decision therefore is of very vital moment, but, of course, it does not necessarily mean that war should follow, though both France and Belgium would be justified in resorting to it if rendered “necessary by the assembly of armed forces in the demilitarised zone.”

It may reasonably be assumed that the Council will proceed to its determination with no undue haste and that every effort will be made to bring Herr Hitler to a more rational frame of mind. As was done with Italy in her dispute with Abyssinia, Germany is given the opportunity to lay her case before the Council, and Herr Hitler is said to have accepted the invitation “ subject to two reservations.” What those reservations are we have not yet, at time of writing, been told. Their nature will give some indication as to whether or not Herr Hitler is really seeking for a peaceful solution. In any event, we may be sure that everything possible will be done to exorcise the evil spirit that blinds him to any other than the German point of view.