A GERMAN WORKING MAN

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 174, 26 July 1939, Page 12

A GERMAN WORKING MAN

PHILIP GIBBS has revised and included new chapters in the latest editon of his book "Across The Frontiers,” and in his final chapter Sir Philip quotes the views of a German working man:—

"‘We Germans,’ he said, ‘want peace above all things. We want tranquility, so that we can get on with our work without fear in our minds. We all want friendship with England and France. But this uncertainty is frightful. We have a black screen in front of us and can’t see through. ‘“I have two boys of fifteen and seventeen. I don’t want them to be killed. They know what war is all right and don’t like the idea of it. I’ve told them about it. I was badly wounded three times. Certainly Hitler has done great things for the German folk, but most of us are wondering whether all that is going to be spoilt by another war in which our sons would be sacrificed. Wo don’t understand why England and Germany are at cross purposes—especially after Munich, which we hoped would bring peace and goodwill.’ ”

Sir Philip thinks that peace can be preserved if a "goodwill contact” can

be made between the Britsh and German peoples. Concerning the latter, Sir Philip says: "In my opinion we shall make a fatal mistake if we allow them to think that we are hostile to the German nation, or that we wish to ‘encircle’ them to thwart their legitimate needs or to make war upon them. All our efforts should be to persuade them that we have no quarrel with them as a people, and that if their Leader will listen to reason, and conform to a code of international Jaw, and prove his will to avoid war, we are ready to make a lasting peace by ending the arms race on both sides and by offering Germany full, free and generous opportunites of world trade.

"War even now is not inevitable. Let us not accept a sense of fatalism towards it. While defending our own liberties and those of other nations by all the strength and spirit we have, let us also work passionately for any chance of peace, because, as all of us konwing our hearts, the next v/ar if it happens will be a flaming hell in which all beauty of life will be destroyed, and ‘victory,’ whoever wins, will be a hideous thing.”