Evening star., 1932-04-17
MELONS Optimism
Heartening to England
BY A. G. GARDINER.

LONDON, April I6.-Ambassador
Andrew w. Mellon struck a cheerful
note In his first public appearance here.
at the Pilgrims dinner this week. when
he and the Prince Of Wales were the
principal speakers. His view that Great
Britain had turned the corner and had
the situation IN hand, and his assurance
that conditions in America are not be-
yond the capacity of the country to
zeal with by accustomed methods,
created good impression without
ohscuring the fact that everything de-
penoS on the course of events across the
English Channel in the next few weeks
While the Disarmament Conference
Is marking time in Geneva, the real
center OF the crisis still is in Germany.
Where Paul Won Hindenburg's re-
election as President has been followed
py dramatic stroke against the Nazi
movement. The suppression of Adolf
Hnler's Brown Shirts has been ac-
complished even in Brunswick. where
the NaziS are in power, witt. surprising
completeness and the absence of
resistance.
In view of this achievement, astonish-
ment is expressed here that the gov
ernment so long tolerated the organiza-
tlon in broad daylight of a rebel army
designed to overthrow the state Evil
dence accumulates of the gravity and
peril OF coup detat on the day of the
first ballot in the presidential elections.
but now that HitlerS bluff has been
tr1umphantly called and his private
army dissolved without striking a blow,
great relief is felt, not merely in Ger
many, but in political circles here and
on the continent.
The bearing of this event on the
critical elections in Prussia and Bavaria
a week from Sunday is important, mas
much as the chances of the occasion
oelng used for successful armed rising
and the seizure of power by unconstitu-
tlonal violence are now dissipated. This
does not mean that Hitler'S electoral
chance Is prejudiced. Indeed, Informed
opinion tends to take the view that
those chances probably are improved
and that the strength of the Fascist
movement in rural Prussia viii give
Hitler the strongest party following. But
his accession to power BY constitutional
means Is not regarded as likely against
the alliance of the Catholic Center and
the Social Democrats. The irony of
the situation is that the stability of the
Reich in the greatest crisis in its historya
should depend on a combination of the
two parties most hated by Bismarck,
the founder of the Reich.
y
The Importance of the Prussian
elections lies in the repercussions of
the result on the French elections a
week later Premier Andre Tardieu'S
non-poSsumuS attitude toward the
American and Italian proposals at the
Disarmament Conference, like his
Danubian fiasco, was designed to save
the government from defeat by the
Left parties in the election. Should
Hitler win Prussia, his program
OF reputation of the treaty of
Versailles would be Tardieu's strongest
electoral card and probably lead 10 a
stampede in his favor
The defeat of Hitler, on the other
hand, by guaranteeing moderate coun-
ellis in Germany would enable Edouard
Herriot and Leon Blum to mobilize the
full strength of the Left parties in the
French elections and pave the way to
a settlement of both the disarmament
and reparationS problems on a basis
of reason and good will.
The danger oVershadowing the elec-
tion in Prussia April "a is that the
existence of 100000 unemployed and
hundreds of thousands of university
graduates, with no occupation except
political agitation, provides the most
inhammable material for the ire
Sponsible appeal Of Hitlerism. In view
of this fact, the possibility of a Hitler
triumph cannot be wholly discounted,
and some observers take the view that
his hopes of constitutional victory ex-
plain the extraordinary absence Of re-
sistance to suppression of his rebel
army. If he wins the electoral battle
it would not be difficult TO revive his
Fascist host with the sanctions of gov
eminent behind it.
While this great issue is in doubt
it is difficult to accept at its face value
Ambassador Melons comfortable as
surance that Britain or any other
country has turned the corner. We
are all hanging desperately on events
together. and the crux Of those events,
as always, Is the German
question.