FOREIGN POLICY

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXX, Issue 4860, 18 June 1936, Page 2

FOREIGN POLICY

THE PATH OF GERMANY. STILL DICTATED BY HITLER. HOW HE LAYS PLANS. The fundamental difference between America and Europe, politically speaking, is that America is wrapped up in domestic politics, Writes Otto Tolischus from Berlin to the New York Times. To European peoples foreign policy is both the foundation of their live's and fortunes as well as a test of their vitality. In an age when a final argument on foreign policy,

namely war, is no longer a matter of Cabinets and comparatively small armies but an entire nation, even domestic policy becomes merely a handmaiden to foreign policy charged with the task of preparing for the “totalitarian war.” At the moment, as during the larger part of the last half-century, European foreign politics have been determined largely by the foreign policy of Germany, which by the mere fact of its growth and its urge for national unification, provided the dynamic element in inter-European relations. Other nations going through the same process earlier provided a dynamic element in other epochs, but' this apparently is the Germanic epoch of Europe, for which reason German foreign policy is challenging more general attention in the world than that of any other country.

Hitler the Main Factor. It is a pertinent question, there- , fore, as to who determines German foreign policy and how. Who makes the fateful decisions? Who assumes the responsibility for them and their consequences? On what basis is the decision made? The answers are simple and can be told in one word —Hitler. The Foreign Minister of Germany is Baron Constantin von Neurath, but he would be the first to admit that Hitler is his own Foreign Minister. That is quite aside from the fact that Hitler is Dictator of Germany, for Stalin is also dictator of a big country, but, except perhaps for its general direction, the foreign policy of the Soviet Union is conducted by M. Litvinoff. German foreign policy is as much in the hands of Hitler himself as that

of Italy is in the hands of Mussolini even more so, because there is no Grand Fascist Council to consult. Hitler lays down the general principles of his foreign policy and determines the individual steps to be taken in their pursuit, makes all the important pronouncements in relation to them, and often writes the Notes sent to other countries. Most German pronouncements on foreign policy bear to-day the unmistakable touch of Hitler’s own language. In this field as in all others Hitler is supreme; all the others *>re merely his advisers and subordinates. He not only does not dodge responsibility for Germany’s foreign policy, he glories in it because it is the basis of all his policies. Basis of Policy. The general principles of his foreign policy are laid down in his book,

“My Struggle,” which is the Bible of all National Socialist policies.

These principles naturally are subject to modification according to the circumstances and realities of power, but a review of German foreign policy under Hitler shows their general trend remains what they call first of all restoration of German military power, national unification, and German expansion in co-operation with Britain and Italy in opposition to Russia and France.

In one respect codification of the general principles of German foreign policy with its dictatorial central direction simplifies it considerably. Everybody in Germany’s Foreign Office and in the foreign service knows what it is all about and where he must toe the mark, which makes possible teamwork unmatched by any other country.

This is important because technical details must still be left to the Foreign Office, which has just been reorganised into a more centralised organisation in which Bernhard von Bulow, as permanent State Secretary under Baron von Neurath and Hans Heinrich Dieckhoff as head of the new political department controlling the entire diplomatic corps, and Dr. Friedrich Gaus, head of the legal department, are the guiding spirits.

Dr. Gaus particularly is a master at diplomatic language and in so far as any other hand is descernible in Hitler’s pronouncements and Notes on foreign policy that hand is likely to be Dr. Gaus’s.

Advice of Six Men.

In making decisions on foreign policy Hitler pays attention to the advice of perhaps five or six men — Baron von Neurath, Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, Reich economic director; General Werner von Blomberg, War Minister; Air Minister Hermann Goering; Propaganda Minister, Dr. Joseph Goebbels, and Joachim von Ribbentrop, his Ambassador at Large. As far as anybody is able to influence new initiative General Goering and Dr. Goebbels perhaps are the most important, because they represent the voice of the Nazi Party, which is Hitler’s conscience. In the execution of a new step Baron von Neureth presents the diplomatic, Dr. Schacht the economic, General von Blomberg the military implications, in addition to which Hitler has at his disposal the information collected by regular, diplomatic channels and a survey of world Press opinion presented to him daily by the Reich press chief, and the reports from National Socialist organisations the world over.

But finally the decisive material is likely to be that collected by Herr von Ribbentrop through important official and social contacts he has established in other capitals, particularly in London, where he is known as the friend of lords. This material has proved unfailingly accurate so far and though Herr von Ribbentrop’s outstanding visible achievement is his successful negotiation of the AngloGerman naval treaty, he has been given even greater credit for having extracted the -assurance of British inaction in the face of German rearmament and the German Rhineland coup. Herr von Ribbentrop’s rise to Hitler’s “Colonel House” put him in the centre of the German scene in respect to foreign affairs. But most of all Hitler listens to the voice of his instincts, because he believes in his own star. “With trance-like surety I go the way which Providence guides me,” he said in a recent election campaign speech that was more than oratory; it was his inmost conviction which he uttered more than once privately and on which he dared to act, sometimes at the risk of personal safety.