Evening star., 1939-08-27

me OF Won Ribbentrop.-A. P. Photo.
Won Neurath and replaced him by Won
Ribbentrop.
The significance of these changes was
clearly explained the day after they were
made by the Berlin correspondent of
the Times of London in these terms:
Herr Hitler's action ends for the time
being contest of personalities and poll
cies that has been going on for the past
five years. There have been pauses in
the contest and even short truces, but
each round has become sharper.
"At the time of the Doilfuss murder
1934 in Vienna, for example, both Won
Fritsch and Won Neurath found them
selves united in urging caution on the
National Socialist extremists. Won Fritsch
with an eye On Signor Mussolini's troops
on the Brenner, Won Neurath with an
eye on French diplomacy, and it was
partly owing to Won Fritsch's insistence
that Herr Hitler closed the Austro-Ger-
man frontier and so Immediately eased
the tension.
Again, at the time of the reoccupa-
ton of the Rhineland demilitarized zone
1886, it was Won Fritsch, it is now be-
lieved, who was in favor of an immediate
withdrawal had France modified, and
1t was Won Neurath who told the Fuehrer
that the French government had been
informed that there would in fact be a
German withdrawal in the face of French
mobilization when the first anxious hours
had passed without move by France
Herr Hitler told both prudent coun-
selors in no uncertain terms that their
caution, had it been followed, would have
lost Germany the day.
Has Justified Hitler's Faith.
Ready to launch Germany's movement
for living ROOM Herr Hitler chose Won
Rlbbentrop to lead the charge. Thus
far he has, indeed, justified his Fuehrers
faith. Since the fateful day in February,
1888, when he took over the Wilhelm
strasse, Germany has marched trium-
phantly into Austria, taken all but q
fraction of Czecho- -Slovakia, consolidated
Memel in the Reich, consummated an
iron-clad military agreement with Italy,
humbled British pride at Munich, kept
Europe in state of perpetual fear, out
Wltted the diplomats of Downing Street
IN MOSCOW and now appears to be march,
ing on toward the attempted partition of
Poland.
Hitler and Won Ribbentrop have
reached these Objectives by a series of
daring moves which, Ajax-like, have de-
ned the lightning of war without ac-
tually drawing it. A half dozen times
within the last two years, Germany has
appeared to be upon the brink of armed
conflict. Each time the determination
OF the European peace bloc" to avoid
another blood-letting like that of 1914
18, coupled with the hope that at last
the Fuehrer had reached the limits of
his ambitions, has savd Europe from dis
aster
Won RibbentropS trip to Moscow marks
still another diplomatic triumph for him
and his Fuehrer For more than five
years, Berlin and Moscow have given
the world the impression that they are
implacabk enemies. Time and again.
Hitler, in public speeches. has spoken of
the Russians in terms of violence and
loathing. Bolshevik spokesmen have an
sWered in kind.
Yet at the very moment when Anglo
French hopes of building up a solid
peace front" against Germany appeared
to hinge largely upon Russian co-opera-
ton, the German pair was able to an
nounce the prospective signing of nom
aggression treaty with Moscow. The an
nouncement was staggering blow to
London and Paris.
In Premier and Foreign Minister v. v.
Molotof of Soviet Russia, Herr Won Rib
bentrop met man whose political po-
sition in some ways parallels his own.
Like Ribbentrop, Molotoff's s appointment
to the Russian foreign office marked a
move to the left in Soviet foreign policy
His predecessor, Maxim NJ Litvinoff,
worked for five years trying to build up
European bloc for collective security"
In time, Stain became disguised with
the tedium Of this seemingly futile game