Evening star., 1935-10-13
NAX REARMAMENT HELD
EXAGGERATED EMPOWERS
France and England Seen Enlarging on
''Menace' to Solve PrOblems-Cer-
mans Admit False Picture.

maa airplanes spawning like mos
quitoes.
The trick worked: Parliament voted
estimates to double the air force with
out squeak of protest from the coun-
try as a whole Thus encouraged, the
Conservative rulers of Britain, who
represent big business, set about the
second phase of their campaign-the
reinforcement or "moderniZation" OF
the feet. The most significant fea-
ture of the great naval review at Spit
head last Summer was the unanimous
chorus of the British press that not
fewer than seven-tenths of the ships
reviewed were obsolete as fighting
units.
Must Meet Challenge.
This press campaign was undoubt-
edly strengthened by the naval agree
ment with Germany, which caused
SO much mistrust and irritation in
France. But the British knew what
they were doing. The underlying
purpose of the naval agreement was
to convince the British public that
| Germany once more had a navy, or
/ was going to have navy, capable of
! challenging Britain IN home waters
and that, therefore. the British Navy
must be rebuilt to meet this new con-
dition.
! The British had a second reason for
wishing to increase their fighting
strength. This reason was political
in so far as Britain found that the swift
increase of armaments on the Euro
pean continent-and in Japan-waS
tending to diminish British prestige,
that is to say political influence, as
other nations believed the backing of
force was insufficient to buttress the
words of British statesmen. The
Italo- Ethiopian crisis was salient
case in point. To their dismay and
surprise. the British found that Italy
had believed their newspaper propa-
ganda about the feet being obsolete
and, far from paying attention to
British advice. was showing signs OF
recalcitrance and talking about bomb
| ing Malta from the air and shutting
| the Eastern Mediterranean to British
ships.
After a moment of astounded irri-
tation, the British reacted vigorously.
They threw into the Mediterranean a
fleet which, however obsolete" nev-
ertheless outweighed the Italians con-
siderably and induced them to pause
and think. incidentally, this episode
gave further strength to British prop
! Ioa nf tho
and it may now be said that this
trick also is being turned. The mo-
mentary irritation due to Italian i'm
pudence" will enable the British gov
ernment, if it so desires, to put
through Parliament a bill for naval
estimates as extensive as the most
fire-eating admiral could demand.
Pretexts for England.
German rearmament and Italian
recalcitrance were in reality no more
than pretexts for the British govern
ment to do something it wanted
greatly to do. Having done it, there
was no longer any need to keep the
pretext balloon in the air. In other
words, it became possible to obtain
from British sources accurate and
genuine, instead of exaggerated and
propaganda proposed, information
about the fighting strength of Ger
many. What I have said about Brit
ain applied-perhaps in Lesser degree
to France and Soviet Russia. They
also had reasons to exaggerate Ger
many's military revival. Today. as
in the case of Britain, those reasons
no longer exist, and the very people
who were doing their utmost to exag-
gerate and play up German rearma-
ment are now willing to tell the
truth about it.
In Germany itself 1t is both diff
cult and dangerous to make inquiry
about military affairs because the Ger
mans know better than any one how
much there is of bluff in their talk
of their country's military regenera-
tion."
During recent weeks I have been
conducting an investigation Of Ger
many,s military strength in well-in-
formed quarters in France, Britain
and Russia, and I have obtained con-