TROTSKY AS DICTATOR

Taranaki Daily News, 11 July 1933, Page 9

TROTSKY AS DICTATOR

MENACE TO PEACE.

ANOTHER WAR PREDICTED.

London, June 24.

In an article in the Manchester Guard-, ian, Leon Trotsky, one of the founders of the Soviet system, but now. an ex ‘e in Angora—describes Herr Hitler, i-.e Chancellor of Germany, as a menace to the peace of the world. Trotsky scouts the idea that Herr Hitler is a mere hysterical demagogue, and condemns as a blunder the attitude of British politicians in deducing that his speech in the Reichstag on May 17 improved the chances of disarmament. “Anyone expecting to encounter a madman with an axe,” he says, “would be relieved to meet a man with a revolver in his pocket. Nevertheless, the revolver would be the more dangerous. “The Nazis have persistently maintained their intention of occupying vast territories in Russia and establishing German peasantry therein. “Hitler’s programme for the reconstruction of Europe is a medley of racial mysticism and national cannibalism. “Hitler’s immediate object is the reestablishment of . Germany’s military power. The revision of treaties would be meaningless unless it increased Germany’s strength and weakened France, which s would certainly refuse; hence Che inevitability of a conflict between France and Germany. “Hitler hoped to obtain permission to rearm Germany in-return for protecting civilisation and Christianity in British colonies against Bolshevism. He depended on British and Italian support for Germany’s ’ right to strengthen defences against the East.’ ” Trotsky quotes an open letter that Herr Hitler, before assuming the Chancellorship, wrote to Herr von Papen declaring that an attempt to propose a military agreement with France as a return for armaments would result in France s refusal, accompanied by the revelation ■ of a proposal to the country at which it was aimed—namely, Russia. “Hitler’s threat that the refusal of the victors to disarm would be interpreted as a desire to remove Germany from the Disarmament Conference, rendering her membership of the League of Nations difficult, envisages,” says Trotsky, “Germany’s departure from tne League, accompanied by a coolness between Germany and France and also between England and America. This would create the first condition for the re-establish-ment of European equilibrium essential to Germany’s plans. f “If Germany’s ‘defence programme against Russia does not prove • the line of least resistance, an explosion can occur in a; different direction. “Hitler is prepared -to wait ten years before he -undertakes war against France and Poland, while within five years equality of rights must be accomplished. Neither period is invested with sacred significance. Indirectly, they define a time-limit for his plans of revenge.”