AMERICA’S CHOICE

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 62, Issue 4430, 26 May 1941, Page 7

AMERICA’S CHOICE

HITLER OFFERS: NAZISM OR FIGHT. [By Joseph C. Harsch] BOSTON, March 18. Does National Socialist Germany have aggressive intentions against the United States? Would it ultimately force the' issue with America if it succeeded in mastering Europe and Africa without American opposition? One who knows Germany to-day could write a score of qualifications around the answer and a book of explanations, yet when all that had been said the answer would still and inevitably be, “Yes.” That “yes” does not mean that the Nazis in Berlin ever originally contemplated a war with America, or even want it to-day. After living and reporting events from inside Germany since the beginning of the war I am convinced that their original plans never- contemplated actual war with the United States, any more than they originally contemplated war with Britain. The fact is that Herr Hitler never particularly wanted a war with anybody. What he wanted was to achieve absolute control over Europe and Africa and organise relations with America and Asia on German terms. He always took the possibility of one great war into his calculations and prepared for it. But there was always a hope that his aims would be achieved by default of opposition. As a matter of fact, Herr Hitler almost achieved that goal. The fact that he got into a war with Britain was to him an unfortunate, unwanted, and dangerous slip in his calculations. The fact that he also has an undeclared

war with America on his hands today equally means that something else has gone wrong with his calculations. The world is not accepting the German dream of dominance as it was supposed to. CONDITIONS BAR COMPROMISE. But inherent in those original plans, and inherent in (Nazism itself, is an inevitable ultimate choice for America as there was for Britain. That choice is either to accept Germany as the dominant organisation and exploitation of the world for the comfort and profit of tribal Germanism, or resist with force. There can be no compromise with it. Germans of all types and classes insisted to me a thousand times during the last year in Berlin that Germany had no quarrel with the United States. I believe that they were perfectly sincere. They had no quarrel with us, as they said, provided we would do as they hoped, expected, and intended. They also said to me that if only the United States would stand aside and let Germany win its war for Europe, the European and American continents could get along together to their mutual benefit. But what they did not understand and the (tiring which makes all such protestations meaningless, is the inherent, inevitable conflict between both National Socialism and democracy as forms of government and between German imperialism and the desire of the other nations of the world to live their own lives and work out their own individual national problems. For when Nazis say that a Germancontrolled Europe and an American continent led by the United States could trade together on German terms. They mean that if the United States would adopt Nazi ideologies and Nazi methods of doing business all would be well. Which is perfectly true. It would. It would function smoothly to German advantage just so long as the American and Asiatic continents were willing to turn over exactly what Germany wanted in return for whatever happened to be the German surplus of the moment, whether cameras or canaries, quite irrespective of whether there was a desire or any need for what Germany offered in trade. For this kind of trade is inherent in the organisation of German industry and also in Nazi mentality. Nazi Germany is basically primitive, tribal Germany with a primitive unawareness of any other nation’s interest and a primitive callous disregard for any interests which conflict with its own. Further, Nazi Germany is a nation organised as a machine more than any other modern nation. Nazism is therefore being constantly driven by two things farther down the road of conquest and domination. One is the latent, tribal German to conquest and the other is the competitive urge of Germany as an industrial machine. It has both an emotional urge and an industrial competitive urge. It is the background of the forest tribe wedded to the modern machine which makes it the most aggressive and ambitious national force of the age. PEACEFUL PLEDGES GIVEN. The soothing assurances of “no harm intended” which were employed so successfully in weakening resistance in the early stages and which have been repeated endlessly and monotonously to any American who would listen, have a quality of almost pathetic wistful sincerity. They are not always calculated and consciously dishonest. Many a German, including younger Nazis who have not yet acquired the cynicism of their leaders, sees no reason why this should not be so. This very innocence of the protestation has disarmed and deceived many a well-intentioned American as it previously deceived many Czechs, Poles, Norwegians, Netherlander, Frenchmen, and Englishmen. But the protestations of German “harmlessness” were always as hollow when naively sincere as when deliberately deceptive. What has happened to every conquered country in Europe provides a clear and inevitable blueprint of what would happen if Germany could extend its direct control over the British Empire and project its indirect influence throughout the world. And at least Nazism’s leaders, if not the rank and file, have discovered in the process that what they want and what they are fighting for can only be achieved, and can only survive, in a completely Nazified world. It probably came as a surprise to many of them that they could not have even a German-organised Continent of Europe as long as Britain continued resisting. What they had not counted on was the fact that resistance anywhere outside the sphere of their armies keeps mental and moral resistance alive inside. Their failure to pacify conquered Europe is in direct ratio to-day to Britain’s prospects of survival. PREPARED FOR CONFLICT. And they know to-day that the same thing would be true even if Britain were invaded and occupied so long as any resistance to Nazism existed anywhere in the world. If Britain went down the German military victory would still be just as hollow and inconclusive and the enjoyment of victory would still be just as unattainable so long as America resisted. Some Nazi leaders have seen this

from the beginning" and have planned and laid their preparations for the ultimate clash with the United States which they foresaw. As evidence note the Bund in the United States, the effort to influence the last election, the ceaseless attempt to buy or intrigue a place in the American press, propaganda and political activity in Latin America. Even when they didn’t admit it to themselves their actions showed a sub-conscious appreciation of the fact that there could be no ultimate peace between themselves and a democratic outside world. In his speech of December 10, Herr Hitler himself recognised this inevitable conflict between a Nazi and a democratic and capitalist world. Here are some of the words he used in contrasting the two:— “We can never be reconciled with this world.” “One of these two worlds must break asunder.” “These are two worlds, and I believe one of these words must crack up.” PRESSURE FOR DECISION. Behind this frank and realistic recognition by the German Fuehrer of the nature of the world issue preparations have been under way for some time in high party quarters for facing it out with the United States. The strategy of the last year has been to retard the tempo of American aid to Britain by every device of propaganda and diplomatic manoeuvre possible. The hope still exists in Berlin that it can conquer England before American aid becomes effective. If this can be accomplished Russia would presumably, as they plan it, capitulate completely, abandon economic procrastination, and admit Germany to abso-

lute control of its economic, industrial, and mineral production. This would leave Germany absolute master of Europe, including its entire facilities for ship and aeroplane construction. The hope then would be to still string the United States along until such time as Germany was fully prepared to face it down over economic and political influence in Latin America. The German plan, as always, is based on the theory of keeping its opponents separated so that they can be swallowed one by one. This may not work, as they well know. If it doesn’t they have plans for that contingency also. I have seen a report which was supposed to have come straight from the Brown House in Munich, I personally believe it was authentic. But even if it wasn’t it was at least indicative of the authentic line of thinking in that headquarters of the Nazi Party. It dealt, among other things, with the possibility that England might be conquered, but the British Government attempting to carry on the war from Ottawa with the British Fleet and American aid. It proposed then to employ deliberate and progressive starvation of the population of the British Isles as the meafis of forcing Ottawa and Washington to abandon resistance. This may sound fantastic and incredible to the Christian-think-ing people. It would also be a violation of international rules of warfare which Germans constantly invoke when it is in their interest. But it is no more fantastic than what is already being done in conquered countries. The German desire is to avoid outright war with the United States as long as that is in the German interest. How long it will remain to the German interest depends on strictly military considerations.