THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 1938 NAZI SHADOW LENGTHENS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22987, 15 March 1938, Page 10

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 1938 NAZI SHADOW LENGTHENS

Acceptance of the accomplished fact of Germany in Austria —lawless a;:id violent though the fact be appears to be the disposition of Britain and the other interested Powers. Indeed, they have very little choice, except they are prepared to fight. And of war on such an. issue, in an inaccessible military sphere, practically on Germany's terms, there can be no question. Hence the nations are already siting up the new situation created by the Nazi irruption into Austria. The change is no less than revolutionary in international politics. Austria is the key State of southeastern Europe, and Germany holds the key. The gain is more in position, in strategical opportunity, than in land and natural resources. Austria is a poor and mountainous country. Her chief wealth consists in timber and scenery. She lacks sufficient coal and minerals for her own us?, and cannot feed all her people. Hur poverty has compromised her independence. Now her dearth has been added to that of land-hungry Germany. If that were all, Austria mie;ht be considered a liability ratiher than an asset. The Reich has about 7,000,000 more people to provide for. But for nations like Britain and France with stationary populations, Germany's sudden gain of 10 per cent in man-power must be regarded with misgiving. These seven millions represent a formidable supplement to the long-range effect of Germany's higher and rising birth-rate. Increasing numbers pressing on meagre natural resources apply the goad of human necessity to German expansion and the acquisition of Austria has provided the Nazis with an advanced base reaching out toward the rich lands, mines and oil wells of the Danube basin. Germany established in Austria has obtained a dominating position for the exploitation of South-Eastern Europe. Therein lies the dread significance of HenHitler's week-end coup. Had Germany been content to rely on peaceful penetration, trade was already beckoning her to a great future down the Danube. Her industrial organisation is naturally complementary to the primary p induction of South-Eastern Europe. As salesman and customer, she was first in the trade of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and of Austria herself. After her interests were ranged in order those of Italy, France), Russia and Britain. Economic dominance made for political leadership. But Germany was not content with the peaceful victories won by the patient diplomacy of trade, neither in August, 1914, nor in March, 1938. The Nazis are notoriously young men in a hui*ry. They have preferred to go swashbuckling down the Danube. They look very formidable just now, as they did when they goose-stepped through Belgium and Nort hern France—until they reached the Marne. But now, as then, they have aroused a fierce resentment among peaceful and law-abiding peoples, and a determination to resist; that must be reckoned with finally. None flies in the face of the world with impunity; the desperate defence of 1914 changes to the victorious force of 1918. Meanwhile it would be idle to pretend that Germany has not created a grim situation for Europe and the world by entrenching herself as far down the Danube as Vienna, the centre and focus of the old Austro.Hungaxian Empire. Its communications with Hungary and the Succession States make the revival of old glories possible, when backed by the military power* that formerly made Vienna the Imperial citadel. The Nazis are there to supply the power. No timii is being lost in organising and regimenting the Austrian people on German lines. They are being welded into the armour-plate of the Third Reich.

Armaments and ideology make a portentous conjunction. Writing in January, Mr. C. F. Melville, a close observer and competent authority on Central Europe, said: "The union of Austria with the Reich would give Germany the hegemony of Europe—directly in Austria and Czechoslovakia, indirectly through the attraction of a Greater Germany for the Balkan States and Poland." What Mr. Melville envisaged a few weeks ago has come to pass. Germany is in a fair way to resume the European headship she flung away in the Great War. With the Hapsburg Empire removed from her route down the Danube, Bhe is placed in an incomparably better position to realise her dreams of expansion in that direction. Before the event, certain Conservative circles in England suggested that such a development should be welcomed, giving Germany room and command of needed resources, keeping her occupied in the East and diverting pressure from the West. Most English opinion, however, believes such a policy to be as shortsighted as it is selfish. They look ahead to the time when, enriched and strengthened by the raw materials and foodstuffs of the East, Germany will face about to the West, relentless to render her reckoning. Mr. Chamberlain is clearsighted enough to see this long shadow. His policy was to weaken the Berlin-Rome axis, to have Italy resume her watch on the Brenner, and so fend the Nazi thrust southeastward. Mr. Eden, the League diehards and the pacifists delayed Anglo-Italian reconciliation long enough to enable Herr Hitler to jump in and entrench himself in Austria. His troops stand guard at the Brenner now opposite those of Signor Mussolini. Some other check to German expansion must therefore be devised in a European situation that has deteriorated dangerously from the British and French viewpoints.