FUTURE OF THE TYROL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23884, 11 August 1939, Page 6

FUTURE OF THE TYROL

UPROOTING THE GERMAN PEASANTRY A MILITARY AND STRATEGIC STEP * By Winston S. Churchill, P.C.,M.P. V The hush continues throughout Europe, and this oheerleM summer is enlivened by occasional jets of artificial sunlight; from Berlin and Rome- We are invited to draw what fbeifevfctist be no war for Danzig. Germany it withdut a wart :. All the time the, Geymap Army, is steadily being placed upon a ;#a)rfobbing; a: million reservists haye been called up in addition to the normal army of a million mem Such a marshalling of strength in time of peace has noyer:before, been seen. . ; ; •; ■ %: •

IT German ’ force ggtheriatj • .for.'the pretehded ** rnahceuvires ’’. of ; last September. ' However, We; are assured from Berlin thatthese/ r prepara.tions ~afe purely % defensive; • their. o?.ily object is ,to protect i^dcent,'vpß'ace-lQyin-R:.-Na?i* ff. dcmjfrom some, deadly attack’ by Poland or Denraartt or Holland, pr | perhaps > ffcofn''the Grand Duchy of s~ Nazi -biandishmeats have pelt'; yet 'i attained the ’success :in Britain apil :i Fran‘tiTObi<& igtsfeted. stoulat, grim acesvlastiyeaT.'-'-it: ; is ■' of once:bit, tWice .shy;- It -is, a, cage. ; ‘ of thfice biti ohce jihy.' 'We must be; •V; glad, that British Ministers-, andsofne. e \] of thbii^; Experts jnov/: cf ;; their : • confidence":• that thearmedy i If, force*! v, : ahd ;r > preparations - if Britßj|fiiX^p^'’ v adequate to her; V dangers.* The Ministers themselves must; also; be glad, to be able to say ;; this,'because, having had unlimited |?• power , ail these years, they are undoubtedly responsible, and will' be held responsible, for any defi- % cienc'ies. \ I, A Significant Signal 4 A far more significant signal is I' made to us from the Tyrol. The 'f more the agreement between the > German and Italian dictators about i* the future of the Tyrol becomes 4,known the more we realise how jr tense and grave is the state of ■.’•Europe. Herr Hitler has agreed to ;r transplant into Germany the entire German-speaking population who cio not wish to migrate to the south of 2 : Italy, in order that the homelands >, on which they have dwelt for 1000 v years, the. valleys and mountains of £ that ' beautiful v tipland, may be % populated with Italians. In taking 4: this step be is, sacrificing his very &|heart’s •blood?' The uprooting of a I;, Germanic peasantry from its native 4.50il is a complete denial of the main ;L declared purpose of his life. It runs to the most intense passion, | apart from Jew-baiting, which has it. That he should be will'if ing to do this is a proof, which s;should be plain to the simplest mind, how seriously he regards the situation, and 4 how determined he is to go forward upon the path of Coni'tiinental domination. k This was the price—the only price 4 that would serve to bind Mussolini % to his chariot-wheels. The position I; of the Italian dictator has become v increasingly precarious. The ■association of, Italy with Germany has undermined the foundations of Italian safety, and has already deeply affected- -Italian independence. Year after year.. the Italian people have seen ; tremendous changes to their - detriment in the f north. The loss of their influence in Austria, which a few years ago was pa-mount; the arrival of gewerful German forces at the Pass; the naked- exposure of German ambitions towards Trieste y and the Adriatic; the arrival in Italy in all kinds of. key positions of large • ! numbers of German agents; the ; ever-growing ascendancy '* in the Axis of the senior partner—all have been viewed by the Italian people, find even in the higher circles of the Fascist Party, with increasing dis- ' may; • ■"... ' ' , ' Italy’s Dilemma ; The prospect - of ’being dragged Into a war of the most terrible Character with France and Great Britain in which the. first brunt would fall upon Italy, .is a cause of . fear'and anger throughout the whole of the long and vulnerable penin- , sula. To wage a war for mortal stakes against the other two great Mediterranean Power;. is indeed a tragic task; to set § hard-wOrking ail'd Hard-press "''b-population. The ; two Western democracies were the ’ chief architects of Italian liberation and,- Italian, unity.. To-day; as iri , the nineteenth century, F ench and '-British interests Would best be served by a free and prosperous Italy in peaceful partnership of the ' Mediterranean The shade of Garibaldi raises a warning hand from ‘ the past. The Italian Royal House has - not concealed its fears. The Vatican has manifested its disapproval. ; Nothing is farther from the wish of the Italian people than to be plunged into a perfectly needless struggle for life with the French Army and the British Navy. In such a conflict they could only

hope to be. upheld: German troops under whose ..command rs their own bfithy (would l b 6: forced, to serve. Hundreds of thousands of German soldiers, must •, enter. Italy,- and be billetted in; Italian.: households, a ■.total./blochade would descend upon their coasts.' -■ .Their armies in "L ibya ' and;'. Abyssinia are’ but hostages to sea-power. In the air race Italy has; fallen hopelesslv' behind, and here again she must''lbo i k tb the air power .of Germany ' asvh'ei chipf protection. “Defeat Spells Ruin” Not a /pleasant prospect. '.Not an ' * easy war.;- -Not a.war in-true; Italian interest. TA war -in which “defeat jSpells i iulni ; and. - .victory pbnnah eh t subordinationt . Yet. this. is the war into’uwhich- '.'Signor . Mussolini, in •whom .hyenhthose who i dislike his ’ hatfh; thbu^bt s "'to ' see a great Ithliah and' a great patriot, is urging .the nation. he ,has‘;,led so long and from ’ whom ~'he; h as; received so much! 4 ' \ r \. No wonder he must have something to shovi in compensation for the injuries which■ .(Italy has sustained, and the perils upoh which he now seeks to launch her. And Hitler has paid the price. The sharp talons of Nazidom will pluck up the. Gennan-speaking peasants andmountaineers from their homes in the land of Andreas Hofer, and plant'them peaceably if they will, forcibly if they won’t, upon the German plains. The migration or exchange of populations is not in itself a process/ necessarily to be excluded fromefforts to procure European tram: quility. Where hostile races are hopelessly and equally intermingled, where no boundary pah be delimited, a sorting-out movement may produce good results. ..Certainly the exchange of several millions of Turks and Greeks was skilfully accomplished in Thrace and Asia Minor, and has had the best results in the after-relations of the two countries. But the population of the Tyrol is preponderantly German-speaking; and the object in this case is not a peaceful settlement of Europe, but a- military and strategic step, designed .to further the waging of a great war by the two Axis Dowers.. f Alarm in Switzerland Alarm is caused Switzerland by the situation in the Tyrol. The Swiss ask why all tourists have been tuiried • out . of the ' Tyrol' at .48 hours* notice, and why all.foreign residents are to leave the country as soon as /possible. It ;vas J.ggested as sin explanation that the German and Italian dictators did not want the painful scenes which must accompany the uprooting to be witnessed by foreign eyes. But this, though natural, is hardly convincing. The migration, however roughly done, would certainly take a considerable time, and the Swiss wonder whether perhaps the veil that is'to be so swiftly drawn over the Tyrol, is not intended to cover troop movements of a serious character.

The aardy Switzers are taking vigorous meas ires to defend their neutrality and native soil. Deep anxiety prevails at Basle and in the Valley of the Aar. More than 500,000 Swiss, are available to defend their country at the , shortest notice. The Swiss Government have not only distributed the rifles to all their soldiers to keen at their own homes but 60 rcunds of ball-cart-ridge as well. This last is a pro-vision.-which shows o what a solid basis of popular consent the Govr ernmeht of this advanced democracy stands. No other £ ite or Government on the Coni'lent would dare to distribute arms and ammunition on this scale to its people. It is a measure of Swiss'strength and also of Swiss forebodings. In this art of Europe, as in all countries which border uoon Nazidom, the fear of being the victim of a sudden lightning attack by Germany dominates the minds not onlv of Governments" but of peoples.

Who shall say these fears are groundless while one nan with his party confederates his political police and bis astrologers, holds the fate of all Europe in is hands? World copyright 1939 by Co-operation.

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