The New Zealand Herald AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1944

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25048, 11 November 1944, Page 6

The New Zealand Herald AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1944

ARMISTICE DAY Twenty-six years ago today a defeated Germany laid down her anns in France. The Allies had beaten their enemy roundly in the held, and Ludendorff can be quoted in evidence of that. Foch, too, surveying the war in early August, concluded with the words : "The moment has come to abandon the defensive attitude forced upon us until now by numerical inferiority, and to pass to the offensive." It was a broken army behind which the Allies marched through the battlefields of Belgium and into a Rhineland unravaged by war. Jeremiahs were un-' welcome at the festival, or there were prophets who could have shown that Prussia had retired to prepared positions behind the screen of a republican Reich. Affairs had been awry in Germany, 26 years ago, but the last Allied soldier had not found his billet in Cologne before the Prussians knew the day was saved. Democracy, in Hindenburg's phrase, "had been prescribed in Germany," but the right people were to be in control of it, and by the middle of January the military caste felt sufficiently secure to murder Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg in the streets of Berlin. They had obviously regained their contempt for the German masses before whose convulsive anger and disillusionment they had for a moment trembled. Those were the days, of which Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf. when a North German was hardly safe in Munich. It is one of the ironies of that hour that Armistice Day had seen the German militarists safely through the first of their crises. The first necessity for them was to ensure their coherent survival. Given that, they were certain that patience and cunning would provide the instruments of war, and they knew their Germans well enough to be confident that, when the Second Day dawned, docile multitudes would be waiting in line, dazzled with the sheen of steel, and ready to follow a npw prophet of Thor. It had been necessary to jettison a figure-head. Gert von Hindenburg, in his biography of the old marshal, tells how, a week before the Armistice, the generals had met and delegated to Drews, Prussian Minister for the Interior, the unpleasant task of telling the Kaiser. Wilhelm refused to understand. He gave his answer that he would not desert his Army, which ' needed him now "more than ever." On November 7 revolution broke out in Munich, and the King of Bavaria abdicated. The Kaiser proceeded to Spa. At the head of his troops he intended to march against the mob. The generals, realising the All Highest's unique value, as a scapegoat, were at their wits' end. The Chancellor, Prince Max of Baden, was more resourceful. Stimulated, doubtless, by the crowd outside his window, he announced the abdication of the Kaiser. Protesting that he was still King of Prussia, the Kaiser called for his Army. The Army, said Hindenburg bluntly, would no longer obey Wilhelm 11. in any capacity. Moreover, he continued, when his master refused to submit, the said Army was marching on Spa, eager for imperial blood. The next morning the Kaiser was in Holland. He had no S.S., no Himmler, no Gestapo. The generals were saved. The seething cauldron of revolt would cool peacefully. In New York the confetti fell like snow. In London every boat on the Thames let loose its whistle. "Our enemies," remarked Robert Ley, in the confidence of 1940, "did not use their victory." Therein lies the sadness of this day. And yet those millions did not die in vain. Such a thought need never mar their Last Post. They died to stem a tide of evil things, stemmed it, and neverthought their sons would see it rise in darker flood. No man, no party need be blamed for that. The humanism of the age found it hard to believe in such utter evil. The Nazis are to be thanked for the complete disillusionment which should make a third conflict impossible. The Germans fully realised 30 years ago that they were waging only the first war for hegemony. They fancy themselves in the role of ancient Rome, and with the fancy in mind the historian Bornhak wrote in j 916: "We are waging the first Punic War against England." Rome f might, three Punic Wars. The third saw Carthage, with her fleet destroyed and her empire shattered, wiped from the face of the earth. The Germans purpose nothing less for England. The warning given by Colonel Knox as long ago as May, 1941, still holds: "We can rest assured that 1 when Germany and its will to force is ultimately defeated, another Hitler, 20 years hence, will be able to do the same in an even shorter period of time, if the world again relinquishes its policing power." i

THIRD ARMY ATTACKS German intelligence services are working overtime to gauge the significance of the Allied attacks in the Metz-Nancy zone. Some of the statements they have put out, notably those reporting concentrations of Allied armies in the Nijmegen and Lorraine areas and that the new attack is the opening of a great offensive, are made in the hope of provoking revealing comment from Allied headquarters. The Germans have probably noted the absence of an Order of the Day which generally precedes an attack intended to produce decisive results, but they cannot be sure whether this is an oversight or an attempt at deception. It is for the Germans to find out whether General Patton is making a tactical or a strategical assault. In the former, his aim could be limited to improving his local positions and to bringing him closer to the frontier in preparation for a grand attack later on. The economic condition of France may be a factor inducing the assault. France is extremely short of coal and ahead of the Third Army around Saarbrucken are mines which could supply all of her industrial and domestic needs. A series of local assaults might bring them under Allied con-

trol. On the other hand, if the timing of the new attack is examined in relation to the conclusion of the operations about the mouth of the Scheldt, strategical inferences can be drawn. The defence of the Scheldt and the necessity of halting the American First Army's attack east of Aachen may have compelled the transfer of men and equipment from the zone in front of the Third Army, ' thus facilitating the latter's operations. By alternating punches, the Allies may so weaken the defence that a breakthrough will becomp easier. This was General Alexander's intention on the Gothic Line in Italy. The better road system of France and the preponderance of Allied strength may make the plan a more feasible one than it was in Italy. COASTAL SHIPPING Advocates of an efficient coastal shipping service, of encouraging young New Zealanders to follow the sea as a profession, and of the importance of a local shipbuilding industry, will find cold comfort in the latest committee of inquiry set up by the Government. Its purpose is to make inquiries regarding competition between the railways and coastal shipping, and the desirability in the national interest of controlling competition and the methods to be adopted. What other conclusion can be drawn than that the committee t has had its mind made up for it that competition exists and that it must be controlled I The part played by the coastal ships in the development of New Zealand, the important role they have filled during the war, and how they may be made to serve the best interests of the country after the war, are outside the scope of reference. On the points on which inquiry is to be made, the Government already possesses all the information required. Just before the war extensive inquiry was made by a special committee which, in due course, submitted a comprehensive report to the Government. For some reason best known to the Government, receipt of the report has not been acknowledged, nor have its contents been made public. It is pertinent to suggest that the explanation for this strange conduct might be found in » belief that the report conflicted with the ideas of the Government, and especially of the Railways Department. A statement is overdue concerning the fate of that report. An assurancs is also needed that the report of the new committee will not be similarly pigeon-holed.