Evening star., 1936-04-12

- GUS election in several decades
when her citizens go to the
= polls the first week in May to
elect a new parliament. Extremely
vital internal and external issues are
at stake in the knock down, drag
out ballot battle between the numer-
ically superior common front" bloc
and the determined Conservative Mill
tarist- Fascist right wing group.
Unhappily for France factor out
side her control will influence many
voters. That is Adolf Hitler. To
Americans it may seem strange that
an element outside of national from
tiers should weigh so heavily in in
ternal affairs. 1t is commonplace in
Europe. 1t was a Russian. M. Zino-
view. whose alleged letter" brought
about the downfall of the British
Laboriate cabinet. The fact that the
notorious letter was later proved
forgery did not remedy matters. Then
again it was Mussolini's Mediterranean
threat that gave the present Conserva-
tive party a sure victory in the last
election in Great Britain. Hitlers
actions between now and May day
can swing the election to the Left
or the Right in France, or at the
very least, determine the platform"
upon which the candidates run.
Big Aid for Reactionaries.
The Nazi occupation of the de-
militarized Rhineland has played
directly into the hands of the re-
dictionaries in France. Just as the
British Laborites swung into line be-
hind the Baldwin cabinets demand
for a billion and a half dollars for
military defense" so have the French
-wingers-the Communists. Social
lists and radicals-forgotten their
pacifist tendencies in face of the Ger
man menace. Their defense program
will be even more drastic than any
the reactionaries could hope to espouse
in normal times. Consequently both
the Left and the Right parties may
eliminate national security as a cam
paign issue by both agreeing upon a
mutually acceptable foreign policy for
the parliament which will assemble
June to map out Frances future
course.
There are at least four outstanding
or indirectly before the French voters
all of which are immensely inpor-
tant both to France and the world
at large
Firstly, there Is the issue of war OF
peace in Europe; secondly, the fats
of the French franc and the gold bloc;
thirdly, the direction of future de-
velopment Of the League of Nations
and, fourthly, the survival of demo-
cratic political institutions in a Eu-
rope which is tending toward dictator
ships.
Outcome May Mean War.
To assert that war or peace in Eu-
rope hinges upon the outcome Of the
French election may appear far
fetched. But it isn't. There Is a
group in France, consisting of mill
tary leaders and realists, which advo-
Gates an immediate war with Ger
many. They see in a preventive
war"-a war which would crush the
Germans for at least another genera
ton, just as the World War set Berlin
back 20 years-the only hope of peace.
France, with her continental allies,
today is powerful.
The Franco Russian Belgian-P Polish
petite entente bloc can throw 10 times
as many men, airplanes, tanks and
reserves into a war today as can Ger
many. In another three or four years
things may be different. Russia advo-
Gates such action because she sees
war with Japan as inevitable. If Ger
many is smashed now her European
rear will be safe for two decades at
least, during which she can attend to
her Far Eastern problem.
Czechoslovakia sees in Hitler's pam
German program the eventual loss Of
at least one-third her present terri
tory and 5000, 900 German-speaking
nationals. Belgium has not forgotten
the last war and Poland knows that
Hitler's next step will be against the
corridor and the free city Of Danzig.
It is a race between Germany and
Poland as to which will absorb Lith-
uania, too.
An unimportant shuttle of the po-
litical cards In France may give the
advocates Of q preventive war the
upper hand. They would act without