Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1933-05-18
INTERNATIONAL
NEWS REVIEW
CONTINUED from Page ~

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by presenting such demands Germany
violated the Versailles treaty, and
that it might be necessary for that
reason to occupy the Rhineland once
more.
There can be no doubt that the
| German thesis is logical and correct;
| if accepted, it would mean a sweep
| ing reduction of ornaments all
around.
Hitler Speech.
Apparently the powers i'm conference
assembled at Geneva are not profound
ly interested in anything as fantastic
as disarmament; they are there, rep
resented for the purpose of making
war impossible, but they certainly
show no enthusiasm for that plan.
No matter how sincerely the peoples
of the world desire disarmament, gov
ernments are not interested.
And into the deliberations, into the
fears and alarms of the last few days
comes a speech by the chancellor of
Germany, Adolf Hitler, who dramat-
ically summoned the parliament
which was sent home on four-year
vacation two months ago Yesterday
Hitler appeared before this body, in
reality intending to address the entire
world rather than the German peo-
| pie alone.
these lines are being written, but in
the main it was an attempt to justify
| his internal and his foreign policy,
and he also discussed certain aspects
of the disarmament cause which it
would be premature to offer any guess
about at this writing.
Burning OF Books.
What Hitler could not Justify from
any viewpoint was the organized
burning, at public bonfires, of books
lowers. Copies of the works of 2S2
authors, Jews, Socialists, Communists,
PacifiStS, etc.,-German, American,
Russian and Others-were destroyed
by flames.
Such action is not merely pitiful,
smacking of middle-age barbarism.
but also laughable because the
thoughts, the ideas which have found
concrete expression in books, cannot
be destroyed. Never was a gesture of
antagonism to progress, to civiliza-
ton, to ideas more futile than this
performance.
Wars, Official and Unofficial.
Germany's attitude toward the dis
armament problem, and German in
ternal conflicts may cause plenty of
friction but will not very likely lead
to any international armed clash, in
spite of the dire prophecies now find
ing their way into the news dis
patches.
In the meantime the first bona fide
declaration of war since the signing
of the Versailles treaty was issued by
Paraguay against Bolivia the other
day. The two South American re-
publics have been fighting for months
about the Gran Chaco border region,
but so far unOfficially. Now that an
actual declaration has been made, the
way for effective League of Nations
intervention has been opened, and
Bolivia lost no time in informing the
League that the Paraguayan declara-
ton constituted violation of the
League covenant.
Peru and Colombia, engaged in a
similar conflict, but a less bloody
one, concerning the Letizia region,
will probably come to terms in an
amicable way. At least, negotiations
have been begun, and there seems to
be present in Lima and BOgota
rather sincere desire to avert the dis
grace of warfare.
In Asia, however, China and Japan
continue their long-winded war, and
Japanese troops are lowering about
the Chinese strongholds Immediately
north of Peiping, also menacing the
positions protecting Tientsin.
No foreign influence seems to be
eXerted just now for the purpose of
stopping this never declared war be-
tween the two Asiatic powers, and
the facts, to the extent that they are
known, imply that Japan will keep
on fighting until she attains her goal
never publicly stated.
Gandhi'S Fast.
In world filled with fears of war,
and humbled by the existence of wars
in progress, Mahatma Gandhi, the
leader of the Hindus, continues his
fast as peaceful protest against un-
just British treatment of India's I'm
tOuch hlo- caStoS Sipca biS roloaSo
from prison last week Gandhi has