Evening star., 1939-02-12


We have broken no engagements
to Czecho- -Slovakia, because We have
had none since the Covenant was
allowed by tacit consent to slip into
ablivion," it states Then it adds, in
a mood of admission again:
But in April, and again as late as
September, We declared our interest
in the problem. of Czecho-Slovakia
in terms which were incapable of
any rational explanation unless the
Government had decided that In GER
tain circumstances the fate of that
country would become casus belli.
1t is improbable that the British
Government looked on that declara-
ton as compromise. Yet 1t was
made as a result of pressure from
those rival sections of British opinion
which were clamoring, the one of a
guarantee, the other for disavowal.
In the light of what followed, we
should better have served the inter-
ests of Czecho-Slovakia if we had
told both DR.. Benes and the French
Government frankly and privately
in April that we were in no position
to fight"
DR.. Benes would probably agree
with that. AS for the reviewer. she
regards the paragraph as positively
mastery piece of prose-of English
prose.
Describing the attitude of the
German people toward the war
scare the Round Table has some
interesting comments to make.
There has been greater ap-
prehension at the prospect OF war
in Germany than in any other
country it observes. g. There
has also been in Germany a wide
spread and ardent hope that war
would come. This hope has had a
twofold origin. A great many young
people, especially members of the
S. A. and of the Hitler Youth, have
lived-and still live-in hopes of a
war that would avenge the defeat
of 1918 and re-establish German
supremacy in the world" (The re-
viewer would ask here whether that
supremacy has not already been
established-to a degree far beyond
anything of which the Kaiser dared
to hope) 1T is not Versailles but
defeat that is the essential German
grievance against the Western Pow
ers. To many Germans war.
no matter what its origins or its
aims, would be a holy war"
AS opposed to this fanatical state
of mind the Round Table says that
there is saner body of German
opinion. Large numbers of Ger
mans" it continues. especially OF
the urban working class, have hoped
for war from an entirely different
motive ever since the National So
cialist dictatorship was established.
Indeed, to many Germans, war has
been the only hope of deliverance
from that dictatorship, seeing that
rebellion at home is impossible in
peace time. while the defeat of the
Third Reich by the Western Powers
would weaken if not destroy the
regime and so make possible the
restoration of German liberties.
, Between these extremes there
is the broad mass of the German
people-Who may be discontented
but who accept the regime and all 1t
does"
After Hitler What?
This is an interesting picture OF
Herr Hitler's citizenry. 1t cannot
but raise a question which has been
occurring to the reviewer persist
emily, as she has read the ever-g grow
ing mass of anti-German publlca-
tions-after Hitler what? After all
the dictators what-if it comes to
that? Will the people prepare them
selves in advance and be ready to
demand their liberties? Or will
history repeat itself, and bring about
the usual period of chaos which, in
all times past. has been the inevi-
table aftermath of strong mans"
folly? 1t is something to think
about. Meanwhile the reviewer is
content to remain, old-fashioned and
despised, liberal.
And now, just for the delectation
of the reviewers inner circle-those
kindly souls who write her when her
humor and theirs happen to COIN
cide-there is quoted single para
graph from the Round Table, which
illustrates why the magazine has
been described above as deliciously
entertaining. The passage in ques-
ton has to do with the Irish elec-
tions, but that is of no point. The
delightfulness is all intrinsic. You
will see it If you see it. If you do
not-well, it Is brief. Here it is.
"Once more" says the Round
Table, "the political nominees swept
the board, whilst some Of the most
eminent man In the co,Intrv did not