Evening star., 1939-01-31
Hitier's Idea of Peace

lilllCI IOCO VI ] COSO
If Hitler's Reichstag speech was
designed to reflect Germany's will to
peace, as it purported to do, it would
be highly instructive to a jittery
world to know in just what terms the
Fuehrer would couch a Nazi mani
festo of war. Throughout six years
of dictatorial and oratorical ex-
uberance, there have never fallen
from the Chancellor's lips more
truculent or provocative words.
His allegation that Germany's col
onies were stolen" from her, his
imperious demand for their restora-
tion, his categorical affirmation that
in any war waged against Italy, for
any reason, Germany will be found at
her side, his warning that Germany
will tolerate no interference "in mat
ters concerning us alone"-evidently
a reference to international protest
against anti-Semitic barbarities-all
these fulminations, comprising the
high notes of a harangue which
lasted two hours and quarter, COM
bined to turn the Fuehrer's sixth an
niversary address to his puppet par
lament into demonstration which
was the complete antithesis of peace.
It was an unblushing apotheosis of
war. Hitler has but aggravated the
apprehension that Munich, instead
of ushering in an era of peace, raised
the curtain on an epoch of force as
the arbiter of international destinies.
Amid the cheers of his well-drilled
marionettes, the Fuehrer recon-
structed the crimes Of Austria
and Czecho-Slovakia- how
merely manifest destiny was full
filled in the anschluss of his home
land; how dismemberment of
Czecho-Slovakia ensued only after
Benes' provocative mobilization"
forced the reluctant hand of Hitler
to counter with military measures for
rescue of the oppressed Sudeten Ger
mans and their reincorporation
within their fatherland.
AS to colonies, Hitler now leaves no
more room for doubt that unless
Great Britain and France "redis-
tribute" these on the basis of fair
ness and common sense" Germany
will not shrink from force to recover
territory of which she was robbed"
He described colonies as a life and
death issue for the Reich, as sources
of raw materials, as outlets for sur
plus population and as markets for
export produce.
The Fuehrers references to the
United States were along anticipated
lines. He repudiates ANY American
intervention in German affairs"
thunders that the United States has
attacked" Germany, and charges
that German-American relations
have suffered from "a campaign of
defamation carried on to serve obvi-
Gus political and financial interests"
He brackets Secretary Ickes with
Anthony Eden, Winston Churchill
and Alfred Duff Cooper as apostles
of war" Finally, Hitler warns" the
United States to keep her hands off
German trade with South America" :"
Making full allowance for internal
chest-thumping necessities - for,
while not tottering, the totalitarian
regime is far from being that tower
of stability and invulnerability which
the Fuehrer depicts it-Hitler's ad-
dress is undeniably bellicose. He has
now proclaimed afresh that the Fas-
cist powers, marching shoulder to
shoulder, are determined to take by
force what they cannot get by in
timidation.
There is only one answer to that
Neanderthaloid doctrine. That is,
for the democratic, non-aggressive
nations to continue ceaselessly, by
day and by night, and with every
ounce of their superior strength, to
meet by military, naval and air pre-
paredness the brutal challenge today
flung in their teeth. 1t is not an
agreeable alternative, but it is an in