“Taranaki Central Press” FRIDAY, MAY 14, 1937. WILL THERE BE ANOTHER WAR?

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 433, 14 May 1937, Page 4

“Taranaki Central Press” FRIDAY, MAY 14, 1937. WILL THERE BE ANOTHER WAR?

‘‘There are one or two prophecies which I shall be rash enough to make,” says Dr. W. R. Inge in his new book, ”A Rustic Moralist.” “The opinion on the Continent is that we are approaching a new and terrible European war. 1 do not believe it. The conditions are quite unlike those of 1914. Then all the great nations were rich; their credit stood high. Although the cost of the war far surpassed all expectations, they found it possible to finance it by borrowing. “But most of the war debts were repudiated, so that in future no one will look on war loan as an investment. We are often told that a nation can always pay its soldiers as it goes along. 1 do not believe it. 1 do not believe that either Germany or Italy could finance a great war. Germany is in such a plight financially, that 1 have grave doubts whether the Hitler regime can last out the year, and Italy is not in a much better case. “Italian militarism seems to be merely a perverted romanticism like that which brought Napoleon tp his ruin. A revival of the Mediterranean empire of ancient Rome is a fantastic dream. The condition for its realisation does not exist. Nor could Germany at’ tack Russia, which would be aided by France, with any chance of success. “Russia, which is moving cautiously in the direction of an industrial and peasant republic, is more stable, both politically and financially, than Germany, where a declaration of war would release a huge volume of violent'd iscontent against the existing regime. The German bayonets are not for use against France, stillless against ourselves. The Germ ans are honestly afraid of the immense Russian Army and of a Co mmunist rising within their own border.”