Evening star., 1939-03-23
Nero OutfiddIed

Hitler still matches deeds against
words. Democratic and Communist
Europe debates. He acts. Memel, Lith-
uania's outlet to the Baltic, Is the
latest loot to fall, by the Nazi intimi-
dation technique, into the Fuehrer's
hands. Formally to take possession
of it, Hitler is landing there today
from a German battleship. Thus,
he will spectacularly demonstrate
that another 900 square miles Of
other peoples soil and a popula-
ton of 100000 have come bloodlessly
under Nazi sway, while four great
powers-Britain, France, Soviet Rus
sia and Poland-ponder and parley
over ways and means to "stop" the
"augmenter of the Reich"
Even as the 10,O00-ton pocket bat
tleship Deutschland, bearing the
conquering hero to the scene of his
newest conquest, was plowing across
the Baltic yesterday, Sir Samuel
Hoare, speaking for Prime Minister
Chamberlain, solemnly informed the
House of Commons that the British
government is thinking of calling a
special meeting of the League Of Ma
tions Ito consider the Reich's rapid
expansion!" If Europe is capable Of
staging more impressive exhibition
of futility and indecision than this,
it is difficult to imagine how it would
60 about it. It is Nero outfiddled, for
q dozen Romes are burning.
The conviction is inescapable that
Won Ribbentrop has advised Hitler
he may again proceed with impunity.
It was his foreign minister who as
sured the Fuehrer in September that
the democracies would not 60 to war
to save Czecho- -Slovakia. What is
causing the present paralysis of ac-
tion by governments which concede
the gravity of developments, but do
nothing about them, can only be con-
jectured. Soviet Russia's acknowl-
edged disinclination to give the Brit
ish-projected anti-Nazi coalition a
blank check may be one explanation.
After the cavalier treatment Moscow
suffered at Anglo-French hands in
Munich, Stalin's lack of enthusiasm
to follow Chamberlain and Daladier
blindly now is entirely comprehen-
sible. Poland's insistence on certain
military guarantees also appears to
be holding up the coalition. A Ger
man-dominated Memel is a pistol
pointed in Poland's direction.
AS to Russia, Memel plants the
swastika no inconsiderable distance
nearer Soviet territory by land, sea
and air. Dictates of self-preservation
therefore may urge the U. S. S. R.
into collective action sooner rather
than later. The German threat to
take over Lithuania bodily unless It's
helpless government ceded Memel in
dicates that the ports possession Is
coveted at Berlin for purpose far
more important than meets the eye.
It is indubitably an integral link in
the Drang mach Osten chain-a chain
which may fasten its coils around
territory of the Soviet Union earlier
than the Kremlin may now realize.
Rumania jubilantly proclaims that
the trade treaty she signed with
Germany last night leaves the king
dom's political and economic inde-
pendence" intact, although corrobo-
rative details are lacking. It is ad-
mitted that the Reich has given no
pledges to respect Rumanian from
tiers. Possibly Bucharest thought
the exaction of them would be wasted
effort in the light of Hitler's record
after Munich, when he promised Mr..
Chamberlain publicly and privately"
that acquisition of the Sudetenland
saw Germany's territorial appetite
appeased.