"IF GOEBBELS ASKED ME TO BROADCAST"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23381, 24 June 1939, Page 13 (Supplement)

"IF GOEBBELS ASKED ME TO BROADCAST"

By HONA/ARD MARSHALL, in The Daily Mail, London Mr. Marshall was afterwards asked to give a broadcast version of this article in the 8.8.C. German News Session

/Ti HIS isn't written as a Daily J -Mail article. It's the script of a talk I should give if Dr. Goebbels invited me to broadcast to the German people. I imagine -myself, therefore, in one of those efficient little studios in the Rundfunkhaus in Berlin, where once 1 -talked to America in the small hours of a snowy winter's morning. This is what I should say. My German friends: May I come in a moment and sit by your"fireside and talk to you—just quietly, as one human being to another? You don't know who I am? Of course you don't. I'm nobody in particular. Just an ordinary Englishman, that's all. But I feel, as so many of my fellowcountrymen do, that it's time wo talked together—the ordinary people of Great Britain and Germany. And that it's desperately important. So far our leaders have talked for us. But I can't believe they've spoken our thoughts. So, for once, let's break the barriers and forget our leaders, if you'll let me in. I've experienced your warm-hearted hospitality so often that I can't think you'll shut your floor to me. You see, I've known your country for many years; - <*t I spoke your language when I wsts a child —not that there's really any language harrier between us. if only we could hear it, the common language of humanity unites us to-day with greater force than ever in history.

But we have to understand one another, you and I. Before it's too late. Tragically too late. And the sands are running out fast. I had a German godfather. He's dead now. His family is broken up. His lovely old home on the banks of the river in Erfurt has vanished. When 1 was a youngster I used to fish in that German river with my godfather's son, Karl. I remember Karl well—his slow smile, his generous companionship. We were good friends, Karl and I. He's dead. too. Killed in 1917, fighting for Germany., That broke his father's heart. Killed, as your sons and my sons might'be killed if•ever we allowed war to break out again. Killed in a war which settled nothing, but merely brought incredible suffering and hardship to the world. Nobody Can Win I wonder if you realise how near we are to the madness of a new world war? I'm told that many of you aren't allowed to realise that, though perhaps you guess a great deal._ Make no mistake about this. If they tell you that the democracies are decadent — that they wouldn't fight against a threat of force—if they tell you that, they're wrong; Grievously wrong. We should fight. And fight to the bitter end, if need be. with all our might. But I'm talking to you to-night because we can't believe that you want war any more than we do. Doesn[t the thought of it appal you, as it does \is? Appal you because of the

fantastic waste of it, the tragic stupidity of it? Nobody can win a war to-day. We must all lose. And this time, perhaps, we should lose civilisation too. It's said sometimes that your leaders plan to dominate the world by force, just as it's said in your country that our leaders seek to encircle and strangle Germany. But 1 simply can't believe that you, as individuals, are interested in world domination. You care, as we do, about far simpler things. Home and family and all that goes with them—these are the tilings you care about —these and the many quiet pleasures which the earth in its richness could produce for us all so abundantly. I ask you to believe that we have no wish to encircle you, to strangle you, to deny you the right to a share of the world's goods. You don't really think, do you, that we want to fight you ? That we hate you, and wish you ill? Of course we don't hate you. Indeed, we respect and admire you, with your great, traditions in music and literature and all the pleasant arts of life. I speak of what I know, for I'm no stranger to Germany and I've always been happy in your beautiful country, whether 1 came as an ordinary seaman to the port of Hamburg, or as a visitor or traveller flying to your great cities —to Berlin and Hanover and Heidelberg', and Frnnkfort. I've seen your fine athletes in action at the Reichsportsfeld. I've chatted to Max'Schmeling iu his training camp, and seen him light in a German ring. I've talked to your university professors, your artists, your diplomats. I've worked in Germany, and played there. I've sat in your beer gardens and made holiday with you in the sunshine on the shores of the lovely Wannsee, in the pine woods above Blankonese, on the broad waters of the Alster lakes. < And I know this. You and 1 are strangely alike. We're homely people, and. if we must argue about politics, we'd far rather do it over a glass of beer than at the point of the bayonet. We have everything in common. Everything, that is, except systems of government which would permit us to wprk together for the creation of a better world. . That's what we should be doing—what all civilised peoples should be doing Working together—not snarling, at one another like angry dogs. We Could Settle It I'm not criticising your Government. That would be impertinent. The way you're ruled is your own affair. And it's obvious that in so many ways the Nazi regime has done great things for I Germany. We're not concerned with Governments to-night. Except in one way. When, that's to say. they set ordinary folk at one another's throats. During the last war one of our soldiers wrote from the front and said: "It's vile that all my time should be devoted to . killing Germans whom I don't in the least want to kill. If all Germany could be united in one man and he and I could be shut up together just to chat things out, we could settle, the war, I feel, in less than one hour," j And that's what we feel to-day. If the ordinary people of Great Britain and Germany could sit down, just as you and I are sitting down together now, we could settle , our problems simply enough. We've made mistakes, both of us—stupid mistakes. Well, let's face up to them and put them right.

What's stopping us, then? Systems of political thought? But why should the ideas of a 'handful of men separate millions of ordinary people? As 1 say, I've flown over Europo many times. And flying gives you new perspectives. You look down, and everywhere you sec little homesteads, with little people busv in their gardens, busy in the fields, on their way to work. Whether you're over England or Franco or Germany it is just the same.

People going peacefully about their own affairs. From the air there are no frontiers. Just human beings. That's all. I've called you my friends. But you're more than that. Brothers and sisters, under the same sky, warmed by the same sun, part of the same plan in the same mysterious universe. I Don't Despair Last year at this time I watched the first signs of spring coming in the woods round Berlin. Perhaps you are watching them now in the same woods, while J see the hedgerows turning green in my own country. Signs of hope and rebirth. And we share tliein, you and I, as we share all the fundamental things of life. That's why we should talk together. That's why our hand is outstretched to you. All! If only it could be made possible for you to take it before it is too late! Hut 1 don't despair. 1 believe that 'common humanity will pull us through. I believe that because you and I and millions of others like us feel so deeply the utter futility of war—because we feel it, reason must prevail. Well, time's up and 1 must leave your kindly fireside and return to my own home and my own children. But remember —if we've made friends to-night, those, children of mine will be Working shoulder to shoulder with your children to build a better world for aIL But if we're still separated by needless mistrust and fears, then they may destroy one another. Did we bring them into the world for that? •I know wliat voirr answer must be. So in God's name —and in our hearts wo still believe, I know, in the same God —in His name therefore, let lis meet again, and soon. Till then our friendship to you, and ayf wiedersehen.