Evening star., 1938-10-18
The Dangers of Delay.

ternatiOnal service in appealing to the
democracies of the world instantly to
move for "the control of barbariSm"
while time is still left them to resist it.
He depicts the dangers of delay in grip
ping terms If the Nazi-Fascist menace
documented at Munich on September 20
is to be thwarted, he declares. there
must be swift, organized fathering of
forces to confront not only military but
moral aggression, the resolute and sober
acceptance of their duty by the English
speaking peoples and by all nations, great
and small-and they are many-who
wish to talk with them"
The British statesman, whom Hitler
bars as future Prime Minister, virtually
under penalty of war If Britain dare to
defy the ban, is convinced that in i'm
mediate, farthest-reaching preparations
to stem the tide of Hitlerism "is the sole
guarantee of peace, the finest and the
surest prospect of peace" Mincing no
words, Churchill adjures the nations
which Jointly speak the language of Mil
ton and Lincoln that their faithful and
jealous comradeship, armed, effectual
would, almost between night and morn
ing, clear the path of progress and BAN
ish from all our lives the fear which
already darkens Gods sunlight to hun
dreds of millions OF men,
Perhaps not since William E. Borah on
March 18, 1918, declared in the United
States Senate that What we have de-
terEined is that we will keep the road
OF democracy open-that no one shall
close it; that whatever else happen, this
form of organization. this theory Of
state, this fruition of 1870 years of strug-
gle and toll shall not perish from the
earth perhaps not in the intervening
twenty years has the English tongue
voiced SO stirring an appeal for preser-
vation of free mems ideals as was car
ried across the Atlantic Sunday in Mr..
Churchill's words by the magic of radio.
He does not ask us to save democracy
in Europe. He portrays the threats
which democracy faces in the Western
Hemisphere. Even in South America"
he said, "the Nazi regime, thriving under
the Monroe Doctrine, begins to UNDER
mine the fabric of Brazilian society"
Churchill reminds the people Of the
United States that you, far away, hap
PLY protected by the Atlantic and Pa
cific Oceans, who are the spectators,
and the increasingly involved spectators,
of these tragedies and crimes the sue
cessive mutilations Of Ethiopia, Spain.
China and CzechoslovakiaD leave us in
no doubt where American interests and
sympathies lie, but will you wait until
British freedom and independence have
succumbed, and then take up the cause
when it is three quarters over, and take
it up, as you will have to, when it is
yours alone?"
1t is terribly pertinent and por-
tentous question the stormy petrol OF
British Conservative politics here poses,
yet not one, he hastens to point out,
which the democracies, even after the
blows they have just taken, need find
insoluble. 1--WE have preponderant world
forces upon our side. They have but to
be combined to be obeyed. France must
start, Britain must start, America must
start. If through an earnest desire for
peace we have placed ourselves at
disadvantage, we must make up for it by
redoubled exertion, and, if need be, by
fortitude in suffering"
The peace of Munich" is not three
weeks old. Yet its chief beneficiary,
Germany, has already all but jettisoned
it. The Godesberg map Of Czechoslo-
vakia, not the map Chamberlain and
Daladier thought they were certifying,
turns out to be what is left of "democ-
racy's last stronghold in Central Eu-
rope" Teschen went to Poland within
week of the four-power conference.
Five thousand square miles Of Slovakia
are about to go to Hungary following
llle lWelSc VI
which represent Germanys swag. Only
yesterday Mussoini warned Prague that
what remains of the Czechoslovak state
would better begin spinning with the
Berlin-Rom axis if it knows on which
side its emaciated crust is buttered. And
at Saarbrucken Hitler told Britain ex-
actly what kind of government he eX-
poets henceforth in Downing Street,
and warned Britain and France alike
that still more terrible German arma-
ments are under way more of "the
blackmailing power of bombing" as
Churchill puts it.
Winston Churchill does we'll to ad-
monish complacent America that
something far more vital than pros
perity may be just around the corner.
What turks there makes labor disputes,
crop control, utility regulation, medical
monopoly, Congressional elections, even
spy trials, Lilliputian by comparison
with the major problem clamoring for
the attention of democratic civilization.