The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-02-23
On i,dfGY BE
IT, PROBLEM
FOR ROOSEVELT
Election Results Likely to
Keep New President on
Needles and Pins.
BY WILLIAM PHILIP SIMMS,
scrinps- Howard Foreign Editor

WASHINGTON, Feb. %. - On
March 5, the day after President
Franklin D. Roosevelt's Inaugural
ton. a general election will be held
in Germany, the results Of which
may keep the incoming administra-
ton on needles and pins during its
entire lifetime.
The Fascist Chancellor Adolf Hit
Ter on that day will make what is
expected to be his final drive for
constitutional control in Germany.
At present he lacks an absolute
majority in the reichstag and is I'M
able to obtain enough support from
the other parties to give him con-
troll
Accordingly, the reichstag was dis
solved and a new one will be elect
ed week from next Sunday. Every
effort now is being made to ham
string some Of the anti-Hitlerites in
their campaign in the hope of cut
ting down their strength in parlia-
,ment.
But if Hitler's Nazis fail this time
to obtain clear majority, as OBJ
servers believe will be the case, the
chancellor may throw aside all pre-
tense, and set up a dictatorship a la
MuSsolini.
Anything May Happen
Then, it is feared, anything may
happen.
For nearly a dozen years, Herr
Hitler has been campaigning on the
promise that if he ever got into
power he would scrap the treaty of
Versailles, bolish the Polish corri-
dor, rectify Germanys eastern
frontiers and insist on the right TO
arm equally with France and her
other neighbors.
Already it begins to look as if the
road was being cleared for such a
program. Germany andItaly, backed
by Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria,
have formed cabal against France,
backed by Poland, Czechoslovakia,
large
extent, England.
EurOpe's Peace in Balance
Should Chancellor Hitler develop
into another Mussolini, or even a
near Mussolini, and he and the
Italian dictator make common cause
against the French bloc, the peace
, of Europe would again be in the
balance. Other considerations en-
tirely aside, the American people
have a 20,000,OOO,OO0 stake across
the Atlantic.
Italy, quite as much as Germany,
desires treaty revision. She par
ticularly desires the Dalmatian coast,
across the Adriatic That coast
has deep water, excellent harbors
and many strategically placed islands
which might come in handy in the
next war" Italys east coast is
shallow, and without a single good
harbor from Venice to BrindiSi.
Tension Is Increasing
Italy already has the northern
extremity of the Dalmation puppet
state-which territory Yugoslavians
charge, merely is an Italian bridge
head for use in launching an attack
against the Balkans.
Tension between Italy and Yugo-
slavia is increasing Franco-Italian
relations never have been exactly
cordial, and were never less so than
now. And France and Yugoslavia
are allieS-also France and Poland,
Rumania and Czecholslovakia.
Accordingly when France charges
Austria with having received vast
quantities of Italian war materials
illegally shipped through her ter
ritory to Hungary, and Hungary
with having been supplied with
several dozen Italian war planes,
all Europe is taken by the ears.
May Lose at Polls, Still Rule
Much, therefore, depends upon the
German elections Sunday week and
what happens afterwards. Nation
alist- Fascist sentiment is rising fast
in Germany observers report, with
Chancellor Hitler using every means
at his command to win a clear ma
jority.
Even if he loses at the polls, he
still has another ace up his sleeve.
He will still have behind him the
biggest single party in the reich.
Having promised his followers to
restore Germany to her place in
the SUM-" a few expect him to take
licking lying down. For him it
is now or never.
Accordingly, he is expected to re-
tain his place in the saddle, con-
stitutionally if possible, but other
wise if he must.
- e.