WORLD DOMINATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24022, 22 January 1940, Page 7

WORLD DOMINATION

REAL NAZI PURPOSE STERN STRUGGLE AHEAD ASSURANCES WORTHLESS (British Official Wireless) (United Press Association) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) RUGBY, Jan. 20. (Received Jan. 21, at 7 p.m.) Speaking at Leeds, Lord Halifax, Secretary for Foreign Affairs, defined the issues of the war as the liberty and independence of the British Empire and all European States. The speech was given at the continuation of a series of meetings at which members of the War Cabinet are rendering an account directly to the public on the war. ■ Lord Halifax declared that the British did not underrate the strength of the enemy or the sternness of the struggle ahead. A dictator could lay his preparations for war in complete secrecy* whereas a Government in a democracy, where there is no surrender of private judgment and no sinister, secret police, was at an initial disadvantage when it became the victim of a dictator’s aggression, but, that initial disadvantage was more than made up for by the fact that defence measures, when taken, had behind them the overwhelming force of the people’s approval and their united will.

THE POST-MUNICH PERIOD The Foreign- Secretary reviewed the diplomatic history of recent years, more particularly the post-Munich period. Despite every contentious point of the Munich agreement being settled in Herr Hitler’s favour it was soon clear that he was profoundly dissatisfied. Privately, he inveighed against the agreement and those of his advisers who had stood on the side of peace. Publicly, he began within a few days to attack Britain, and a campaign of vilification was launched in the German press. It became rapidly, evident, Lord Halifax said, that Herr Hitler actually objected to settlement by negotiation, and resented having been baulked from war, and Lord Halifax went on to reveal that during the discussions preceding Munich Herr Hitler made it quite clear to those taking part that he was anticipating with relish the opportunity of chastising Czechoslovakia. “I have no doubt that he also was disillusioned, because he hoped after Munich that we would be lulled into security and close down on rearmament, leaving the Germans in undisputed possession of what Herr Hitler himself called the mightiest armaments the world had ever known, so that the Nazis would become dictators, not only in Germany, but in Europe. When, within six v months of Munich, Herr Hitler annexed the rest of Czechoslovakia, that act, involving the forceful incorporation in the Reich of millions of men and women of another race, revealed to the world the real Nazi purpose—German domination—and aroused the very deep instinct in the British people which throughout history has always led them to resist attempts by any nation to make itself master .of Europe,” ■ - .... ,j , After contrasting the different use to which British and German strength is put—one to the spreading of liberty and the other to the spreading of fear and coercion—Lord Halifax turned to examine the reality behind the proffers of friendship to Britain Herr Hitler is-always claiming to have made. In a recent speech in Danzig Herr Hitler complained because he was accused of breaking his word, and declared that in all he had done he merely kept his word to the German people. Thus, Lord Halifax said, any breach of trust was justifiable if it would help him to realise his ambition, and if Britain had shaped her policy on Herr Hitler’s assurances she would have been told after he had broken faith and reduced the Empire to his will that he merely carried out his proclaimed aims in “ Mein Kampf.” NAZI LACK OF SCRUPLES Lord Halifax cited Finland as an example of Nazi lack of scruples in abandoning erstwhile friends. The real issue in the present struggle was that the basis of Nazi policy was plainly force. Herr Hitler had frankly confessed that in his view the weak had no righto live. Against that conception the British Commonwealth of Nations stood. The results of the two conceptions of society and government were vividly contrasted by Lord Halifax when he pictured on the one hand divisions of German troops, drained from her reserves, moving into Austria, Bohemia. Moravia and Poland to hold down those territories by force, and on the other hand divisions of free men building up British reserves, moving from free British dominions overseas and moving of their own free will towards the firing line to uphold Britain’s cause. RIBBENTROP’S RESPONSIBILITY Lord Halifax recalled how, in a preface to German war documents, Herr von Ribbentrop, “ on whose shoulders before the tribunal of history wildest the heavy responsibility for this war,” had defined the German war aim. to be military destruction of Britain. With this military destruction would come the defeat of all things for which Britain stood —standards of decency and fairness in international relations, the ideal of justice between man and man. “ I have no hesitation in saying,” declared Lord Halifax vehemently, “ that I would a hundred times sooner be dead than live in a world under the heel of Nazi dominance.” . \ ALLIES’ CO-OPERATION Lord Halifax next took up the progress of the war campaigns. He said Germany’s only chance of winning the war was by cashing in quickly on the advantage she possessed through long preparation, fortifications in the west, air strength, and readiness to go to all lengths in waging war at sea. “Yet Germany hesitated to launch this big offensive on land or in the air—not certainly, I think, because of any tender feelings for you and me, but simply for the reason that makes a bully hesitant to hit someone who may hit him back.” SUCCESS OF CONTRABAND CONTROL Referring to contraband control, Lord Halifax said in the first two months of the war German imports from three countries whose trade had to cross the Atlantic fell to 7 per cent, of the figures for the same months of 1938. Even from two neighbouring countries inside the contraband belt German imports were only slightly over half of those of the same period in 1938. She was making great efforts to increase trade with the Balkans, Scandinavia, and Russia, but her capacity to export to those countries rested in large measure on seaborne supplies, which the Allies were steadily but increasingly denying her. DECISIVE FACTORS IN WAR “I cannot doubt that the factors which will ultimately prove decisive are on our side,” continued Lord Halifax. If that were so at what kind of peace did Britain aim?. That had been clearly defined by Mr Chamberlain, as follows:: —“We must insist upon the restoration of liberty to the small nations which Germany cruelly deprived of it and profiting, as I hope, by experience of the past, we shall do our utmost to secure Europe from a repetition of this disaster. We seek nothing for ourselves. We have said publicly that if we can once again feel secure that the German Government would respect its undertakings and honestly co-operate in trying _ to 1 build instead of destroy European peace upon terms of live and let live for all nations, we should not seek any vindictive peace or one which would deny Germany her rightful place among the nations. The only reason why peace cannot be made to-morrow is that the German Government has as yet given no evidence of its readiness to repair the damage which it inflicted upon its weaker neighbours, or of its capacity to convince the world that any pledge which it may subscribe to is worth more than the paper upon which it is written.”

“Only Finland—superb, nay, sublime in the jaws of peril—shows what free men can do. Finland’s service to mankind is magnificent. She has exposed for the world to see the military incapacity of the Red Army and Air Force. All can see how Communism proves a nation base and abominable in war. What is left of civilised mankind could contemplate no more mournful spectacle than the reduction of this splendid race to servitude by the force of overwhelming numbers. Meanwhile, neutrals bow to German threats, hoping that Britain and France will win, each thinking that if he feeds the crocodile enough the crocodile will eat him last, but the storm will spread southward and northward. There is no chance of a speedy end except through unity. Nothing would remain for the smaller States if Britain and France made a shameful peace but division between the barbarisms of Nazi-ism and Bolshevism. The most hopeful influence upon neutrals’ is their increasing sense of the Allies’ power. “ We face numerical odds, but that is no new thing in our history. Will newer, sea power, financial and natural resources and a cause which rouses the human spirit in millions of hearts have proved decisive factors in the human story. How otherwise would men have risen above apes? Numbers do not daunt us. We need no doubt the power of the Empire aligned with France. We shall not be found wanting. We see disintegration behind the brazen fronts of Nazidom —shortages of raw materials, the hesitancy of divided counsels and doubts which undermine those who depend on force alone. We shall in the bitter conflict before us keep nothing back nor be outstripped in any seryice to the common cause. Liberation of Warsaw, Prague and Vienna is sure. The day will come when joybells will ring again throughout Europe, when victorious nations will plan to build in justice, tradition and freedom a house of many mansions where there shall be room for all.”