Evening star., 1934-01-21

Stain. Mussolini and Hitler has been
TO create and keep moving, by the use
of force when necessary. emotional
waves that induce the multitude to give
up individual thoughts and individual
feelings, and to sacrifice their freedom
gladly.
The International Consequences.
But let US try to discover the in
ternational consequences of this revo-
luton
To start with, more than 100000
600 inhabitants of Europe are trained
TO a kind of collective life that is
strongly at variance with the existence,
for example, of the average French
man. the average Briton. Spaniard.
Dutchman. Swiss. Swede. etc. In Ger
many and in Russia ,the case of Italy
Is not the same; more humane out
lock obtains there. the population re-
ceives daily from the radio and from
the ready-made press only the opinions
that can safely be expressed in public
Every opponent OF the regime is speed
lily sent TO a concentration camp or
disposed of by the police or by the row.
ing bands of the party in power
In Germany people are held account
able not only for their own words and
ooSoS. 4I4tS are tJtCleQ lTOIn IIle COM
munlty or brought down to an inferior
status if they happen to have had a
non -Aryan ancestor as far back as four
generations. To breed a citizen of the
future German commonwealth becomes
a state function and as result of the
new law of sterilization. it has been
announced that 100000 individuals al
ready have been singled out.
Libraries have been DESTROYED and
unorthodox philosophers and historians
placed on the black list The Nobel
prize winner who during the war made
olscover1es that enabled the German
army to renew its supply of arnr1uni-
ton Indefinitely. has not even been
spared. Death upon the battlefield is
held forth as the supreme achievement
In life. Practically the whole youth of
the country Is Kept on perpetual mill
tary parade IN one way or another.
From that picture let us turn to the
everyday doings in small French ,ri1
township, or in the intellectual CITY of
Oxford. The French peasant and the
humble town dweller only wish to be
left alone by the public AUTHORITIES:
they keep on, time after time sending
10 parliament men of their own kin
Radlcal-Socialists and Socialists, whose
program is to whittle down the fiscal
anu military expenditures
Last Spring a member of the Cham
per OF Deputies who had Just passed
through the electoral struggle exclaimed
tliat the people in the provinces. if left
70 themselves. would almost be willing
10 sell the next department if they could
De sure that. afterward. they could
live undisturbed on their own land
Decay of Aviation.
or course. that remark is not to be
taken literally: but. or the other hand,
it would be difficult to exaggerate the
apathy of the whole nation. The French
army finished the war endowed with
what appeared to be an unchallengeable
superiority in weapons of every kind
Between 1920 and 1929 no serious en-
deavor was made to keep it up to date
A consequence is the relative decay of
French aviation, which. as regards quail
ity. is clearly outdistanced by its
Italian and German rivals. BY law. the
young men of 81 are taken to the bar
racks for one year of military service
In practice they serve only 10 months.
In sharp contrast are the military So
cieties which on the other bank of the
Rhine continuously keep their 100000
adherents on the alert-these societies
to which Chancellor Hitler recently, in
conversation with the British Ambas-
sador, was bold enough to liken to
members of the Salvation Army! In
France any one who would go into the
countryside and suggest to the young
men that they spend their Sundays in
mass formations would be deemed a
lunatic.
At Oxford last year the famous
Union" or debating society, passed by
an overwhelming majority a resolution
to the effect that, in the future, none
OF them was to be expected to fight
"for king and country"
Well. such striking disparity and
contrast between the present mood Of
the German people. on the one side, of
the French and British people. on the
other (not to include the rest of Europe
in this review does create warlike
danger Of a new character 1t Is quite
possible that in not too distant future
the territorial issue should recede to the
background and that an international
conflict of the first magnitude should
rise from the mutual hostility of two
civilizations having very little in COM
mon, each camp coming to the conclu-
sion that its ideal and mode of life is
hardly likely 10 survive unless the other
has been deprived of its prestige and Of
its force.
We may thus be brought back to a
situation which, mutatis mutandis, will