Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Over 50 Years.] SATURDAY, 20th APRIL, 1935. BACK TO 1914.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 20 April 1935, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Over 50 Years.] SATURDAY, 20th APRIL, 1935. BACK TO 1914.

Heedless both of the lessons and objectives of the Great War, for which millions of men laid down their lives, Europe has reverted to the conditions of panic and suspicion which produced the conflict of 1914. The Treaty of Versailles, like. another historic “scrap of paper,” has been torn up and scattered to the winds. Talk of war is universal. For what? Against whom? England is reluctantly building' up her armed forces; France has decided to impose two years of compulsory military service instead of one; Germany has introduced conscription and will call to the colours all males between thd ages of 17 and 35; Austria plans conscription for the coming summer; Russia, more efficient than in pre-war days, has an “understanding” with France; France is frantically working for a military alliance with Italy and Britain; Europe, as a whole, is arming as fast as its factories can turn out munitions, and as fast as man-power can be organised. The facts are no longer disguised behind a screen of peace-loving platitudes. They are acclaimed brutally and without a tinge of shame. It is not difficult to find the cause. The moral repudiation of the Treaty of Versailles by the Allied Powers, and its actual repudiation by Germany, is the true explanation. Europe had failed to realise that as a nation Germany can no more refrain from, being aggressive than a Avolf can refrain from being hungry. Yet there is a glimmer of hope. Even an armed and prepared Germany, Avith no grievance, is not such a menace to peace as a Germany secretly armed and seething Avith wounded pride. Certainly, from the British viewpoint, Herr Hitler’s momentous decision is regarded as no more than a admission of what Avas already knoAvn to be a fact. To that extent the air has been cleared. Sir John Simon and his colleagues Avill noAV be able to continue the pursuit of peace by international pacts, air and other-

Bin? zfI&MWM.. be • PPBBrcer committed to som^pMJpl^bal' :anee of ’ tliri^Balance, als<^f pr better or worse. I ,' will "be goveimed by tangible power in the formfof armies, fleets aeroplanes, Tbe pity of it all .is that Herr Hitler had to find his pretext in the British White Paper and Prance’s decision to- double her army.