TE AWAMUTU COURIER. Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, 11th MAY, 1938. THE CAULDRON SIMMERS.

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 56, Issue 4046, 11 May 1938, Page 6

TE AWAMUTU COURIER. Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, 11th MAY, 1938. THE CAULDRON SIMMERS.

AMID pomp and splendour rivalling that of mediaeval times, Herr Hitler is paying an official visit to Rome. Just as there was no doubt as to the enthusiasm for Hitler in Austria, so there can be no doubt as to the cordiality and enthusiasm toward him in Italy. The Rome-Berlin axis is being forged anew, and both Italy and Germany are sparing no pains in broadcasting this fact to the world. To the British Empire the dominant question will be, “ What are the relative strengths of the national demonstration to Hitler and the recent BritishItalian agreement ” The two' do not gc together. There can be no doubt that Mr Chamberlain’s intention was to weaken the Rome-Berlin axis, and with Nazi guns frowning on Italy through the Brenner Pass it seemed possible that this objective had been to some extent achieved. But now Hitler is in Rome, to the accompaniment of unprecedented acclamation. It seems Italy has become inevitably tangled in the German net, and she is fast on the way to being a vassal State in the third German Reich. Sir Norman Angel interprets the position in the following words:— “ To-day the German road to the south-east is open as it never was before; a Berlin-Baghdad Empire is not only feasible, but almost certain. Italy’s acquiescense as a satellite State will be secured by the offer to share an amount of swag (including Tunis and probably other French colonies, having for Mussolini the advantage of being ready-made, liot needing much capital development) very much greater than Britain could offer as the price of ‘ peace.” There is but slender hope now that Europe can be saved from totalitarian domination. We are likely to see the new technique, which might be called the Spanish technique, of subsidising a violent Fascist minority within the territory of the prospective victim, so as to weaken his powers of resistance, applied in a series of steps. To Czecho-Slovakia first; then to France.” The German policy is a masterpiece of strategy. Secure the objective., come what may, but without war if possible. Propaganda and unflagging peaceful ” penetration are doing their work faithfully and well. Let there be no misconception about the Austrian business. It was certainly a flagrant breach of an independence agreement, but ninety per cent of the Austrians enthusiastically acquiesced I when the coup was staged. Sixty thousand people at Ling acclaimed Hitler in the grip of an almost religious emotion, and in Vienna the crowd sang hysterically:— Thus we go marching on Till the last man expire. To-day all Germany is ours: To-morrow the world entire. The next logical step is Czecho-Slo-vakia, but it is a dangerous one, for it involves France and Russia. So Germany is pursuing her “ peaceful ” penetration policy of fomenting an internal upheaval through Herr Henlein and his Sudeten German minority. Czecho-Slovakia has a population of only 15 000 000 persons, against Germany’s 68,000,000, but she has an excellent army, wholly mechanised, and a highly efficient air force. She is I separated from Germany by high ranges of mountains, heavily fortified, ( and could be invaded, in practice, only I through the valley of the Elbe and i the Moravian “ gate,” where the borIders of Moravia. Silesia, and Poland come to a point. Czecho-Slovakia’s whole military strategy is based on holding the Germans sufficiently long at these points to enable France and Russia to mobilise and come to her aid. Meanwhile, of course, Germany is not idle in other directions, and by trade agreements, intense propaganda, and subterranean intrigue is endeavouring to strain the links that bind Czecho-Slovakia to the other nations of the Little Entente, such as Jugo-Slovakia and Rumania, the latter of which is rich in grain and oil. And so the European cauldron simmers menacingly. Wien it boils in Czecho-Slovakia the fat will be in the fire.