Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1939-06-29
International
News Review
BY GEORG sTRANDvOLD

Yesterday marked the twenty-fifth
anniversary of the shot that killed
Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Aus
tria-Hungary at the Bosnian town
of Sarajevo; that shot which on July
%, 1914, set off the World war.
Yesterday also marked the twen-
tieth anniversary of the signing of the
peace treaty of Versailles which ter
minated the world war.
| And the world today is still suf-
fering from the consequences of both
insanities. Not only that, but the
world seems to be preparing for the
act of repeating them.
If and When
In London and Paris, nerve centerS
of Europe, the belief persists that
there will be first-class international
crisis soon. Observers even have set
an approximate date, namely, Octo-
Der 1-or Whereabouts, but, of course,
they can know nothing definite about
it; at best, they may draw certain
conclusions from what is going on
right now, and then make guesses.
All those guesseS tend in the direction
of crisis but not necessarily war;
it appears to be a somewhat general
feeling that Europe will be brought
to the very verge of war, and that
then miracle will occur in the elev-
enth hour, not, perhaps, unlike that
which last September at Munich
Of lot
Germany got what she wanted (Sude-
tenland), aided and abetted by Great
Britain, France and Italy. Surely,
somebody will have to make conces-
sions during the summer, and, per-
haps it will once more be England
now so accustomed to accept humili-
ations at the hands of dictators.
Trouble Centers.
At the present moment there are
two trouble centers, one in China, the
other in Danzig.
At Tientsin in northern China and
at Swallow in the southern part of
that country Japanese military au-
thorities keep on heaping indignities
on British citizens. London protests
vigorously. Chamberlain speaks fur
iously. Lord Halifax, his foreign
minister, follows suit, and both agree
that what the arrogant japanese are
doing is just simply horrible and in
| tolerable. But Messrs. Chamberlain
and Halifax confine themselves to
angry words. So far, there has been
no action, and the result is that the
japanese simply laugh at the British
who keep on talking, keep on writing
seething notes, without backing them
up by action of any kind.
Why is it that Britain seems to
be timid, in Asia too? No one knows,
but it is quite possible that it fears
Herr Hitler may start things in Eu-
rope in case the British become in
volved in Asiatic affairs, and have
their interest temporarily withdrawn
from Europe.
That's not at all improbable, for
Hitler has said, and during the last
week or more his propaganda min
lister, Josef GoebbelS, has been going
up and down Germany repeating, that
DdIlLlS uluSI NC ISuIlltcu Will lllS
German Vaterland.
What Threats Mean.
There are on record some very
lhighfalutin' words spoken by Brit
ish, French and Polish statesmen to
the effect that if Hitler takes Danzig,
| it will mean war. But-and that's
very important 'but"-it will mean
war, only if Hitler takes Danzig by
force. Judging from his past per-
formances he has no such intention
So far, he has attained what he
wanted without resort to arms. He
will hardly be crude enough to risk
war just because of Danzig.
So the dire threats emanating from
London, Paris and Warsaw mean very
little as long as Germany takes Danzig
without fighting about it. And it is
all the easier since Danzig indisput-
ably is German city. Would any,
one really subject Europe to a war
because Germany wants back city
whose population is SO percent Ger
man? It seems monstrous to think So
Troop Movements.
There is however an OminOlIs note