Evening star., 1936-03-11
Killers s'DiyersiOn." "

Since time immemorial various Euro
pean governments, at moments OF do
mestic crisis, have gesorted to foreign
diversion" in order to distract atten-
ton from problems nearer home. Ger
man governments, in their turn, have
resorted to such devices. There are
some authorities who think that Will
liam II went to war in 1914 largely for
the purpose of warding of the rising
tide of German social democracy. The
London Times has just published a story
from Berlin which suggests that grave
German internal disunity may have had
something to do with the sudden move
for remilitarization of the Rhineland,
with its resultant threat to European
peace.
For some time, according to the Times
narrative, Finance Minister Schacht and
other moderates have been pressing the
Fuehrer to resume friendly contact with
Western powers, including re-entry into
the League of Nations. Such a policy
of conciliation has not been popular
with certain Naz extremists, who ham
ker for fulfillment Of Hitlerisms still
unrealized dreams, including restora-
ton of the German colonies, annul-
nent of the war-guilt clause of the Ver-
sailles treaty and expansion Of Reich
territory across those bleeding borders"
near which German minorities dwell in
anticipation OF incorporation with the
Nad realm. Schacht's resentment of
policy designed to ALLEVIATE foreign SYM
pathy for Germany is said to have
reached a point where he rendered his
resignation last week, following the de-
cision of the Hitler high command to
march troops into the Rhineland.
1t is notorious that unrest and con-
flict are raging within Germany over
the disordered state of national finance
and economies, because of new taxa
ton that must be levied to bring income
into line with expenditure caused by the
vast rearmament program, the disloca-
tion of export trade due to foreign boy
problem. DR.. Schacht and those who
share his views have not concealed their
misgivings regarding the path Ger
many is treading. Concurrent with
their anxieties is the widespread under
ground hostility to the Naz regime, as
manifested by Communist and other dis
affected. though suppressed, elements.
The thought underlying the reported re-
lationship between domestic discord and
the Rhineland maneuver is that the
Fuehrer decided upon dramatic stroke
for the purpose Of smothering opposition,
concluding that there could be no more
potent counter-irritant than military
reoccupation Of the Rhineland, with the
probability that it would cause the coun-
try to rally around the swastika and bury
its domestic differences in the face of
foreign peril.
Various factors bolster the idea that
extraordinary conditions must have ac-
tuated Hitler. It is commonly under
stood, for one thing, that Germany's re-
armament, despite its undoubtedly ad-
vanced stage, is not yet at point guar
anteeing the Reich's ability to overcome
the combination Of forces 1t would have
to meet in a European conflict. The
military group, it has authoritatively
been stated, has no plans for a cam
paign for at least another year or more,
convinced that war could not be ven-
tured sooner than that with any pros
poets of victory for Nad arms and aims.
That Hitler will receive an overwhelm-
ing vote of vindication for his latest
diversion in foreign policy, whatever in
spired it, when Germany goosesteps to
the polls on March 20. Is, of course, a
foregone conclusion.