Evening star., 1935-06-02
HITLER SPEECH TAKES
TONE OF STRESEMANN
Foreign Observer Says Pledge of Truce
Provides Britain With Chance to
Make New Peace Overtures.
BY FRANK II. SIMONDS.

ME- ~ Gays WHICH nave elapsed
since Adolf Hitler made his
notable address on German
foreign policy before the
Reichstag have served to establish two
clear convictions. The first is that
Der ReichSfuehrer's speech constitutes
the preface to a new period Of truce
in Europe and the second, that spoken
by any German statesman before the
events Of the past two years. 1t would
almost certainly have been hailed far
and wide as the promise not Of
mere truce, but of an enduring peace.
As it is, there will inevitably be doubts
and suspicious and these will find ex-
preston in the continued expansion
of European armamenLs.
Interpreted as Der Reichsfuehrer's
speech was bound to be by those coun-
tries and peoples who have been justly
alarmed by the program of aggran-
dizement set forth in Hitler's own
book the speech does reveal Germany
at the moment without matured
plan of attack upon any Of her neigh
bors. This fact has, moreover, been
accepted as indicating that for several
years 20 come the military authorities
of the Reich will be busy fashioning
the new German army and therefore
unready for any offensive operation
until that task is completed.
That means that there is the pros
pect of a respite during which states
manship may seek TO prevent a war
that on several occasions during the
past two years has seemed imminent.
Whether it is possible permanently 10
exercise the peril is another matter.
But there is no doubt that the British
will seize upon the present truce to
make vet one more attempt to bring
Germany back to Geneva and thus
into the so-called collective system of
preventing war. Hitler himself, how
ever. has made it crystal clear that
the first cost of any such undertaking
must be the recognition OF Germanys
legal right to do what she is in fact
doing, namely, arming TO limits nxeo
by her own rulers and not by the
terms of a treaty imposed by the VIC
tors Of the World War.
NictOrS Had opportunity.
Nor can any reasonable person
quarrel with the logic employed by
The German dictator in discussing the
armament question itself. Only the
most legalistic Of minds will venture to
argue that the ultimate denunciation
of that portion of the treaty law OF
Paris which condemned Germany 10
permanent inequality in the means OF
self-defense constituted a crime. Ine
victors had IS years in which 10
abolish these restrictions by an agree
ment with Germany and between 1926,
when Germany joined the League.
and 1898, when she quit. they failed to
do it. In the present speech there Is
a note of warning over the inequality
, resident in the treaty law, which COM
pels the Reich to keep its frontiers
demilitarized while its neighbors ex-
tend their border Notifications and
ga:risons.
There was. moreover. a world OF
common sense in Hitler's protest
against the multiplicity Of conferences
and the extension Of mutual assistance
pacts. 1t is true that. his own words
embodied in his book taken together
with the prospectuses Of conquest
issued by his more fanatical followers
| have justified the endeavor OF the
nations directly menaced to Join
| hands against their common danger.
But it is not less true that such COM
binations are themselves irreconcilable
with the basic principle OF the League
which is not that interested nations
| shall make alliances, but that the
League itself shall be assured of the
resources of all its members to carry
| through a truly collective action In
case of aggression.
The most interesting details OF
Hitler's speech were those in which ne
formally renounced all purpose to
modify the frontiers of Versailles by
force. That constituted in effect a
reaffirmation of the pledge which
/ Stresemann gave for his country at
| Locarno. And on the subject OF
! Alsace-Lorraine and Austria, Hitler
was more positive than his dlstln-
| guished predecessor-aS he had already
been on the subject of the Polish Cor
| ridor-when he made the 10-year
nom aggression pact with Germany's
eastern neighbor and secular foe. The
wish that this pact might be renewed
again and again must also nave
awakened welcome echoes in Warsaw.
Treaty Revision Need Recognized.
1t is true that in his speech Hitler
referred to the need for way to re-
wise treaties that had become obsolete.
a necessity which was recognized even
in the covenant of the League itself.
For the German chancellor this meant
the revision of treaties which were no
longer commensurate with needs OF
growing peoples And such provision
would apply with equal force to the
japanese and the Italians. who. like
the Germans, are suffering from popu-
lation pressure and the poverty of the
essentials of industry in their own
territories. Undoubtedly this reference
will excite apprehension among the
colonial nations and particularly In
Britain and France. Under the cir
cumstances, however, 1t is hard to see
how Hitler could have said less or
said anything less proVocatlVely.
The real trouble with the Reichstag
speech is that the peoples who are
most apprehensive will inevitably
deem it too good to be true and even
in Great Britain criticism on this score
has been as common as commendation
for the substance and tone. For a
long time to come, at least. powerful
and perhaps controlling influences in
the public life of France. of Italy and
even OF England will see this uterance
as a diplomatic maneuver rather than
as a sincere gesture of conciliation.
Moreover, in this speech as in all other
international commitments, whether
written into treaties or spoken by re-
sponsible statesmen. what counts is
not what is said, but what is intended,
and in that respect future actions
must speak more loudly than words at
the moment.
No one knows what the German