RULE BY TERROR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24772, 24 November 1941, Page 4

RULE BY TERROR

WHAT DEFEAT WOULD MEAN CIVILISATION AT STAKE "IDIOTIC LITTLE NAZIS" Comparing what defeat in the last war might have meant to the British Empire with the evil tortures expected if the Nazis were to win the present j war, Mr A. Duff Cooper, British Cabinet ! Minister, in a national broadcast last night, said that, though the nation wanted victory to come soon, it would not come unless every last effort of the p;ople was thrown into the struggle. He expressed confidence that the British nation would win. " I seldom think that truth falls from the lips of that arch enemy of the human race, Adolf Hitler, but what he said not long ago about the future of Germany for 1000 .years depending on the result ol the present war was partly the truth," said Mr Difl Cooper. "Much more than the future of Germany depends on this war. Ths whole future of mankind is at stake. I sometimes think there is real danger behind this solemn, fearful fact. It should be present in our minds night and dajr that only by our constant efforts and sacrifices can victory be achieved. " No War Like This " "There have been wars in the past, but no war like this one," hp- continued. "Ws must not for one minute make the Vital mistake of thinking that this war, is like others, in which victory or defeat meant only the transference of cne thing or another, the original cause of the dispute. This war means more than that. The last war was a very terrible one,' and there was a great deal at stake. It was never likely that complete defeat would have meant the destruction of the British Empire. There was no time when Germany would not have accepted terms, leaving the greater part of the Empire intact. But a patched-up peace could have been only a temporary truse. Germany would never have let us do what we foolishly alowed her to do in the years between the two wars." Mr Duff Cooper said he was no admirer of the former military regime of Germany, and Britain did well to destroy it. It,was, however, not a despotic tyranny. The man on the throne had limited powers. There was » freely-elected parliament, which could and did frankly criticise the government. There was a free press, and within certain limits there was free speech, and there was not much attempt to interfere with the freedom of religion. The Germans,, however, were always a cruel race, and books on the last war written by Germans illustrated the pagan quality of the German character. Vile Nazi Methods "But in the old German culture, cruelty was not done deliberately and cold-bloodedly by the representatives of the people's government and permitted by the methods of administration," he added. "Of all the things that will make the Nazi regime in the nostrils of all future generations, the concentration camp is the vilest. It stands for the determination of the Government to rule the people by terror.

" It would have been a terrible thing to have lost the last war, but it would not have been the end of sill things—the final frustration of human hope," Mr Duff Cooper said. "We mighl have found allies in Germany with its free parliament, press, writers, and religion. Although I should have hated living in such a world. I would at least have felt some hope for future generations. How much more frightful and hopeless it would be to-day if the Nazis should prove triumphant. It would not be the triumph of one man, a nation, or a race, but the beginning of terrible and evil days. Never let us forget the main principles, on which the Nazi philosophy is based, although it is to misuse words to call it a philosophy. It is the ugly greed of a debased and diseased imagination. Race of Supermen " These idiotic little Nazis are telling their people to-day that the German people are superior to all other people on earth. Whatever good thing humanity, has is German, and whatever bad thing there is in Germany is of foreign origin, they are told. They are also told that they were born to be masters, that all other nations should be their slaves, that the .world belongs to them, that it soon" will, and they will rule it for the benefit of the human race. "If we had been told 10 years ago that this could be suggested in the twentieth century with mankind civilised as it is, we would have said it was too ghastly," Mr Duff Cooper continued. "Since Hitler came to power this vista of crime has passed before our eyes. He turned on the Jews, then on liberals, pacifists, and royalists, and all were tortured in silence. He then turned on the Czechs and the Poles, trying deliberately to eliminate a whole highlycivilised people, because he feared and hated them. Torture of the British " How much greater, therefore, must be the Germans' fear and hatred of the British. The Poles are a danger to the Nazis, but the British are death and destruction to them. For this reason we may ourselves assume that if victory should not be ours, the treatment we would receive at the hands of the Nazis would be immeasurably worse than anything the Poles have had to suffer. It would, take a great deal to break the spirit of the British race. I do not believe that any terror would succeed in breaking that spirit, but all would be attempted. "We are not going to be defeated, however, but there must be unremitting effort on the part of everyone,'" Mr Duff Cooper concluded. " These are great days, days of fate, and days of decision, and we must do our best for posterity, so that future genera-; tions will indeed call us blessed."