Evening star., 1935-05-12
|HITLER'S POLICY FORCING
BRITAIN INTO ALLIANCES
Danube Conference Likely to Complete
Ring of Foes Around Germany
and Bring Eastern Crisis.

GUM WOulQ certainly ACT LOReLQer
promptly and present an array Of
forces beyond any present possibility
of Germany's matching. Were Ger
many to seek to overthrow the
present Austrian government, Italy,
Czechoslovakia and France would
surely march, the Soviet Union would
doubtless lend its aid in aircraft at
least, but the British course would
remain doubtful unless German Sue
cess seemed likely. Under no circum-
stances, however, could the British
suffer the French to be defeated and
German armies to get to Ostend or
Calais.
If Germany should attack the Soviet
Union through Poland, or by way Of
the Baltic, although France is now
bound to intervene, it is difficult to
see how such intervention could be
effective unless Czechoslovakia also
came in. Then this small state would
supply an air base for both France
and Russian aircraft little more than
a hundred miles from Berlin and
Munich, and almost in sight Of Dres-
den and Leipzig. But, by contrast,
neither France nor the Soviets could
support the Czechs on the ground,
and they would probably be over.
whelmed briefly by German numbers.
Now if one attempts to look at the
situation through German eyes. cer-
tain facts are evident. No German
soldier or statesman would think, un.
der present conditions, of attempting
any offensive in the west that would
be to court swift disaster and insure
eventual ruin when the effects Of a
new blockade were felt Stupid as was
the decision to start submarine build
ing again, in the light of the psyche
logical effect of such a step in Britain,
it did not represent any purpose to
challenge the British.
Hitler Needs Britain.
What Hitler must do is to seek to
create the impression in England that
the western front lies outside the pur-
view of any program of violence or
expansion which may exist in his own
mind. He has effectively laid the
foundation for a European coalition
against his Germany like that which
eventually demolished Napoleon's en-
pire. If England actually resolves
that European peace and English Sc
curity are incompatible with Hitler's
survival in the Reich, then she will
associate herself with France, Italy,
the Little Entente and the Soviet
Union in formal alliance such as
does not now exist. And against such
a combination Germany could not tri.
/ IIn1n0 and Hitler cOIIl6
For the moment. the Austrian field
offers Hitler a better chance, for the
Austrians themselves are very far from
happy now that they have become, for
all practical purposes, an Italian pro-
tectorate. If you think of the relations
between Austria and Italy in the CEN
turies before 1866 the implications of
this reversal are patent. No single act
of folly in recent years compares with
MusSolini's when he forced the luck
less Dollfuss to destroy the democrats
and socialists in Vienna In February,
1884. That abolished the only solid
obstacle to the Nazis in Austria and
opened the way for the July putsch In
which Dollfuss lost his life. Such in
| formation as I get of the Austrian
situation does not suggest immediate
success for Hitler through domestic
action, but it does foreshadow growing
weakness for the Schuschnigg govern
ment.
! minded Americans, too, must
| perceive that in the matter of the
! AnSchluss, as in that of the armament
| question, the German case is some
thing far different from what 1t is
represented to be by the opponents
of the Reich. Legally, Germany was
forbidden by the treaty of Versailles
to arm to a point of parity with her
recent comquerorS, and the German
speaking populations of the old Haps-
burg and Hohenzollern empires were
denied the exercise of the right of self
determination, which in 1919 would
certainly have led to their fusion. But
this treaty law was imposed upon
the Germans at the point of the bay
onet and constitutes something far
different from law founded upon JUS
tice and equality.
Sees Germany in Right.
When, therefore, the Austrian peo-
pie ask for union with Germany, as
they may do by majority vote one day,
or when Germany demands that the
will of these people be consulted be-
fore any Danubian pact is made to
preserve the status quo, neither re-
quest will be unreasonable. And the
attempt to prevent Austro-German
union by force and against the will
Of the Austrian people themselves can
not recommend itself to any one who
believes that a people possesses the
right to determine its own allegiance.
Today, doubtless, fear Of Hitler might
hold back majority of the Austrians,
but as recently as 1881, when the re-
publican regime still endured in Ger
many, Austria voluntarily sought o
tariff union with the Reich.
Personally, believe that Germany
possesses the inherent right to equal
ity in means of defense with all her
neighbors, and that the attempt to
restrict that right by treaty law i'm
posed by force was as unjust as IL
proved to be futile. also believe that
the right of the Austrian people to
unite with the Germans is imprescript-
ible, and the effort to thwart it SINH
larly 1ndefenSible and doomed to fall
ure. Exactly in the same way / be-
lieve the attempt to perpetuate by force
the frontiers drawn in 1919 at the ex-
pense of Hungarian populations and
to the profit of the Czechs, the Serbs
and the Rumanians cannot be JUS
titled, and eventually must fail.
Sooner or later the rs millions of
Germans Of Central Europe will estab-
liSh their right to unity, and the same
is true for some nine millions of Mag
vars. The efforts of the Italians,
French and Little Entente peoples to
block this process invests German and
Hungarian policies with an appeal to
these peoples which Is obvious and
presents them with a grievance which
Is real. BY contrast, when Hitler
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