THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, MARGE 9, 1936. A GERMAN BOMBSHELL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22825, 9 March 1936, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, MARGE 9, 1936. A GERMAN BOMBSHELL

A cable message which we publish this morning states that Europe awaited the week-end expectantly and apprehensively. It is possible that Europe hardly anticipated any event so dramatic and so provocative as that which was actually witnessed during the week-end. A favourable reply was returned by Italy to the overtures on the part of the League of Nations for negotiations with a view to the termination of the war in Ethiopia which is involving both belligerents in enormous losses and is gravely tarnishing such reputation as Italy may have possessed for respecting an international organisation that devotes its activities to the humane purpose of succouring the wounded. And this was so much to the good. But Germany selected this precise moment for a step of a kind that must cause consternation throughout Europe and that constitutes a fresh challenge to the signatories to the Versailles Treaty. Herr Hitler has denounced the Locarno Pact, in terms of which Germany accepted the territorial arrangements on her west frontier as permanent and under which provision was made for arbitration in disputes between her and France, while Great Britain and Italy pledged themselves to support any of the three Rhineland nations that might be attacked. He has based his action upon the ratification by Prance of her pact with Russia, and has despatched forces to occupy the demilitarised Rhineland zone. With his flair for the spectacular, he acted before he notified the Powers that are directly concerned, and German troops had entered Cologne before this fresh violation of the Versailles Treaty was communicated to a specially and suddenly summoned session of the Reichstag. The whole military operation was so completely organised that it may be confidently surmised that it was being planned at the time of Herr Hitler's recent appeal to France for the establishment of a friendly relationship between the two countries. Herr Hitler treats the conclusion of the pact between France and Russia as a definite rejection by France of his appeal. In doing so, he completely ignores the admission which the French Premier made last week that it was desirable that a great country like Germany should resume its place in the world and be treated on a footing of equality. He also ignores the fact that, as M.

Flandin has revealed, the French Government has for months past been seeking a rapprochement with Germany. With that lack of a sense of humour that is characteristic of the country, this "brutal violation," as French papers stigmatise it, of a treaty to which Germany is solemnly bound is described ns "the erasure of the last stain on Germany's honour." That it is popular in Germany is obvious. It has been acclaimed throughout the country with as much enthusiasm as though it represented a signal triumph. The impression which it has created elsewhere in Europe must, however, be one of amazement and alarm. The first reaction to it in France has been distinctly ominous. And it is likely to be generally believed that Germany has gone the wrong way about achieving that " right to live " which HenHitler claimed in his flamboyant and impassioned speech in the Reichstag. For the time being, the question whether peace can be brought about between Italy and Abyssinia is overshadowed by the extremely grave question, raised by Germany's action, whether war can be averted in Europe.