HITLER’S INFLUENCE ON WORLD

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21052, 2 March 1940, Page 6

HITLER’S INFLUENCE ON WORLD

Bread is to be rationed in Spain. Bacon and butter are rationed in Britain. Everything is rationed in Germany. In almost every corner of the world the people are being compelled to subsist on less than they had before. And even before the war, millions of people had less food and less non-consumable goods than they needed to make the best of life. That is one phase of the war that has been caused by greed, ambition and aggression, and an indication of the magnitude of the task that awaits the world in the reconstruction period when the war is over.

An American authority has estimated that 100,000,000 people throughout the world have turned from the production of useful commodities to the production of war materials. The result is that the output of the people’s ordinary needs has been reduced tremendously. Besides, financial difficulties and chaos in the international transport systems have made it impossible to make the best use of the decreased supply of goods. Hence, even in neutral countries far removed from the theatres of war, the people are compelled to make a little go farther than it went before. Rationing is the popular method of securing economy in the use of commodities. The trouble is man-made and unutterably stupid. But that is what wars are made of, and there remains nothing to do but to ensure that the causes are removed. The only way to remove them is to remove those guilty of this criminal folly from their position of power. It has been said that Hitler is the most powerful man in the world. At least the war which he chose to precipitate has affected every living person. Everyone who possesses a ration card, everyone who feels the pinch and want of war, and everyone who faces the danger and the hardship of active campaigning know that Hitler is powerful and that Nazi-ism has caused a convulsion of feeling among many millions of people. There is comfort in the reflection that stout-hearted nations are prepared to accept all the hardship and discomfort involved in the crusade which has as its objective the rescue of the world from this evil influence.