The Southland Times MONDAY, JUNE 12, 1939. Britain And Germany Since Munich

Southland Times, Issue 23841, 12 June 1939, Page 6

The Southland Times MONDAY, JUNE 12, 1939. Britain And Germany Since Munich

TN the House of Lords last week -*• the Foreign Secretary made a speech on the international situation during which he stressed the differences of national outlook, deplored the mistakes of German policy which have done much to alienate public opinion in the democracies, and reaffirmed the Government’s willingness to reach an understanding with Germany. “But if these problems are to be solved by negotiation,” said Lord Halifax, “there must be goodwill on both sides and there must be the conviction on both sides that the word of the other will be kept.” Addressing his constituents at Edgbaston, the Prime Minister endorsed these statements and added that although Britain was ready at all times to find a settlement through negotiation rather than through force no effort will be spared to make the country so strong that an aggressor would hesitate to begin a general conflict. “I have had little help from the countries with which we hoped to come to an understanding,” said Mr Chamberlain. He could have said, indeed, that Germany and Italy appear to have done everything in their power to prevent the British people from putting aside the fear and distrust which have disturbed them since the Munich Agreement.

Tactical Errors

It is now becoming plain that . Herr Hitler has missed his greatest opportunity. If he had called a halt to aggression at Munich and made a serious attempt to abandon power politics in favour of diplomatic negotiation he might have been able to consolidate his position, improve the prospects for foreign trade, and enter a period of stability made possible by British and French co-opera-

tion. Two things seem to have kept him from making this abrupt change of policy. He has been restrained by the realities of the internal position in Germany and by his own psychological inadequacy. A political regime framed as the expression of a dynamic policy for territorial expansion and supported by an economic system which depends increasingly on predatory methods has developed a momentum that is hard to check without risking a general collapse. Behind this system stands always a dictator whose personal prestige requires a succession of triumphs. Herr Hitler has extended the boundaries of the Third Reich with a quickness that must have seemed impossible a few years ago. His followers expect him to continue his conquests; he himself appears to be driven by the Weltanschauung, or world outlook, defined in “Mein Kampf.” But he has shown a remarkable incapacity for understanding the temper and outlook of the democracies. The series of easy victories which culminated at Munich apparently convinced him that Britain and France would fight only if their own territories were invaded. He appears to have had no conception of the way in which British people can be roused by the evidence of brutality and tyranny. In no other way is it possible to explain the tactical error of the pogrom against the Jews, set in motion while the world was still unsettled by the Sudeten crisis, or the deliberate flouting of

treaty obligations when the Nazis marched to Prague. If he believed that Britain and France would remain passive while he continued to advance eastward it seems only reasonable to expect that he would have made some attempt to placate public opinion in those two countries. But the annexation of Bohemia and Moravia was carried out with every sign of indifference to world opinion.

Answer to “Encirclement”

Since then the inception of the peace front has made it difficult for Germany to seize more territory without plunging Europe into a war. So far Germany’s only answer to the so-called “encirclement” policy has been a campaign of abuse against the democracies and their leaders. Nothing has been done to improve conditions which have been created by the aggressors themselves. On the contrary, in the past few days Germany and Italy have gone out of their way to remove the last thin veils from the intervention in Spain which they so strenuously denied during the civil war —at least until General Franco’s victory seemed assured. Even while Mr Chamberlain and Lord Halifax were both speaking with a temperateness which alarmed the French Press—because “the Nazis may believe that Britain is weakening”—the first news was coming through of a new act of oppression at the Czech city of Kladno. If a European settlement depends on goodwill there is still'no evidence that the tension can be removed in the near future. I