The Significance Of Memel

Southland Times, Issue 23774, 23 March 1939, Page 4

The Significance Of Memel

MNCE again Germany has acted V with characteristic swiftness. The capitulation of Lithuania, whose Government is reported this morning to have submitted to an ultimatum demanding the return of Memel to the Reich, is not a disaster comparable with the annexation of Bohemia and Moravia. Memel is a narrow strip of territory of no great economic value, although in the present struggle for positions it confers a strategic value by extending the coast of East Prussia up the Baltic. But a glance at the map will show the significance of Germany’s latest move. According to this morning’s cable messages the Nazis have guaranteed the new Lithuanian frontier with East Prussia. In the light of what happened to Czechoslovakia these guarantees are worthless, and there can be little doubt that Germany will seize the whole of Lithuania when the moment appears opportune —perhaps in the near future. This would extend German territory to the Latvian frontier near Dvinsk, a point not much more than 50 miles from the Soviet Union. Much the same position already exists in the south-east, where Ruthenia—ostensibly in the hands of Hungary—is about 80 miles from the Russian Ukraine. What seems to be happening is that Germany is carrying out a strategic advance in the form of a giant pincer movement along the flanks of Poland. If Poland can be kept neutral, or enticed into the Anti-Comintern Pact, the buffer-State would cease to exist as an obstacle to a German advance and at the same time would remove the need for largescale operations along nearly 500 miles of Polish-Russian frontier.

Obviously, if Herr Hitler is planning a campaign against Russia he would have to contend with a thousand difficulties that cannot be foreseen in theory. The greatest of these, perhaps, is the position of Poland, who could scarcely escape being drawn in on one side or the other, and whose recent attitude has been mainly one of vacillation. But it is possible that Herr Hitler is thinking, not so much of a mad attempt against the Soviet Union, as of overcoming the dangers inherent in the leng frontiers and increasing the difficulties of Soviet intervention in south-eastern Europe. This could mean either that the Nazi advance is to be through Rumania to the Black Sea, or that the next sphere of action is to be in the west. Whatever is to happen, however, there can be no doubt that Germany is on the march and that she intends to exploit her opportunities to the utmost. The lightning rapidity with which one blow has followed another is proof that Herr Hitler means to advance as far as he can before there is serious opposition from the major Powers. While the British Government tries to overcome its dislike of a rapprochement with Russia he is adding more territory to the Reich. While France makes a hurried attempt to speed up her productive capacity in armaments he is taking over the giant Skoda works and gaining access to valuable stores of raw materials.

Everywhere he has gained the initial advantage of undeclared war. Whether or not he can consolidate these new positions in the face of a world-wide hostility is of course a question for the future. The important fact is that he has already gone a long way and that he shows every sign of going further.