EUROPEAN CRISIS

Hutt News, Volume 13, Issue 21, 1 November 1939, Page 8

EUROPEAN CRISIS

The following letter, written by a German from a town In Southern Germany in the second week" of the war, gives an indication of the state of opinion:— "The outbreak of war has not had the sensational effect which might have been expected. No one doubted that Hitler would invade Poland in the end, but it was doubted that the British and French would take action. The fact that Great Britain and France have entered the war is sinking but slowly into the people's minds . , . Many still believe that neither Great Britain nor France is in earnest. There is still a widespread belief that the Western Powers will withdraw when Poland has been defeated. "Although it is true that people are worried and anxious, they are less so than they were ten days ago, because the bombs they expected have not yet fallen. 'They haven't the guts to start,' is what many people say of the Western Powers. "Reports of Polish atrocities which fill the papers and are 'documented by photographs, feed the hatred felt for the Poles. Nor is anti-British propaganda unsuccessful. Many people are Honestly convinced that Great Britain has no other aim than to drive others into war with Germany while keeping ■ out of trouble herself. "All this does not prevent people from listening eagerly to foreign radio stations whenever they have the chance. Much of the information in foreign broadcasts is undoubtedly believed ... the severe penalties for listening in to foreign broadcasts do not prevent it. ihe only effect it has is to make people talk less freely about the foreign news. And yet everybody knows of all the others that they are listen-ing-in. The contradictions between German and foreign news produces a distinct feeling of uncertainty. , "Of rebellion or open resistance there is no sign .... People feel that the regime still has tremendous power. One has to put up with it and keep quiet. But there is a good deal of grumbling . . amongst housewives, who are trying to hoard whatever they can lay hands on. Ration cards have been intro- , duced for almost everything. Even shaving soap can only be obtained with ration cards. The ration of flour is half a pound per head per week. "Even the farmers can obtain meat and flour only with ration cards. . . . The harvest was not finished in the beginning of September. For example, potatoes and turnips have not yet been brought in. The second hay harvest (is virtually important for cattle feeding) has not been brought in either. Women and girls who have been recruited to help with the harvest cannot cope with the job. . . . Even the men who served in the last war have been called up. Most of them were full of bitterness and resentment when they left for their barracks . . . "During the last few days they have been recruiting in the villages even those youngsters who have not yet done labour service. Artisans up to fifty years of age have been called up with their assistants.. Many of the smaller workshops are left without a single hand. The peasants had to hand all their horses over to the Army, with harness and carriages. Every tractor, every car has been confiscated . . . "There fs great confusion in the administrative machine. The offi-

LETTER FROM GERMANY

cials do not know how to work the bread-rationing scheme yet .... . Retail dealers cannot get goods I from wholesale dealers ... There is no sign of enthusiasm amongst , the soldiers who are crowding the innumerable trains. Most of them, even the young ones, are full of fears. "The Nazis preach systematically, 'It will not be so bad; we ! shall soon have finished with those J skunks of Poles.' There were many dramatic scenes when the con--1 scripts said good-bye. Of many I who werp called up three weeks ago there is as yet no news . . j 1 THE ALLIES' AIM MANCHESTER, Oct. 5. I "What," asks this morning's "Manchester Guardian," "are the Allies to aim at?" | "A Europe in which armed force will no longer be arbiter, whether it is used on land, in the air, or on 1 the seas. This implies the creation of a League possessed of an armed [ force greater than that of any European Power. A Europe again iin which some form of Federal I Union will subordinate all the fierce rivalries that now threaten to tear us to pieces and enable each people to develop its own culture and raise the level of its common life, finding strength and help in its association with the rest of "Europe. "To the creation of such a ; Europe the Allies would contribute j not only by their leadership but by their own concessions, for it would obviously demand from them nieir I consent to a radical reconstruction of the colonial system, as well as to large economic readjustments and the surrender of part of their national sovereignty. Such a Europe cannot be created at once. Its creation must be a gradual and complicated process. But if that is our aim all our policy must be guided and governed by its spirit and its needs. There is no place in it for a Power that seeks conquest and dominion. A conference in which mutually suspicious Governments dealt in bargains and arrangements of the old kind, in a series of manoeuvres and stratagems, would not give it much help. The ideal meeting-place for a Peace Congress .... would be Washington, and the Allies should make every effort to enlist the help of the United States, for whom this migii 'well seem the sequel to their great achievement in constructing their Federal Constitution. With such plans in view the Allies would have no difficulty in showing that they do not desire a Versailles Peace, for they seek to provide a world in which all the legitimate demands of the unsatisfied Powers would be met. "If, then, the world wants to know why Great Britain is at war, the answer is threefold. She is fighting, as every threatened State must fight, for her own security. She is fighting, as a people that has drawn so freely on Europe for light and culture, for fame and wealth, in honour bound to fight, to guard Europe's liberties. And if to-day she can only defend Europe by using her reluctant strength upon the seven seas she is fighting, we hope, for this dream of a nobler future when she can serve Europe by using all her knowledge, experience, and sympathy to aid the common purposes of mankind." A LA MODE. Foreheads, we read, are being worn high. So we're continuing to wear ours where our hair used to be.