Evening star., 1939-03-18
Wunton LuwIessness'

Wunton LuWleSsness
Seldom in the peaceful relations
OF nations has more scathing con-
demnation been visited upon great
power than the rebukes which were
administered simultaneously yester-
day to Nazi Germany from the
United States and Great Britain. At
Washington, Acting Secretary of
State Welles, speaking with the ex-
press authority of President Roose-
welt, branded Chancellor Hitler's
seizure OF Czecho-Slovakia as wan
ton lawlessness," and clearly indi-
Gated that the Temporary extin-
guishment" of that country's liberties
is not countenanced by this Govern
ment.
While the State Department was
thus proclaiming non-recognition of
the legitimacy of the Reich's action
IN snufflng out the independence of
nation with which the American
people "have maintained especially
close and friendly relations" addi.
tional Steps.were taken to manifest
the United States resentment of
events at Prague. It was announced
that the provinces of Bohemia,
Moravia and Slovakia, upon which
Nazi authority has been imposed,
now have the blacklist status which
Germany has in our trade re-
lations with foreign countries.
Washington, in other words, has
moved without delay to register in
every way at this country's command
its unqualified disapproval of acts of
arbitrary force" which, in Mr..
Welles' fortnight language, are
Threatening world peace and the
very structure of modern civiliza-
ton"
Within few hours of this vigorous
American indictment of Hitlerism,
Prime Minister Chamberlain, speak
ing in Birmingham, denounced the
high handedness and duplicity of the
Fuehrer even more devastatingly. It
was not as the -at-any-p price
architect-in-chief of the Munich
pact that the head of the British
government spoke. It was a thor
oughly disillusioned apostle of ZAP
peasement" who branded Adolf Hit
ler as one who had "wantonly shat
tered" hopes of tranquility in Europe
by taking the law into his own
hands" in shameless violation Of his
publicly and privately plighted word
that liberation of the Sudetenland
was his "last territorial claim in
Europe"
Mr.. Chamberlain did not content
himself with chastising Hitler for
breach of faith. He warned him in
SO many words that liberty is dearer
to Britain than peace and that If the
Nazi tyranny continues to seek the
imposition of its brutalitarian doc
trine upon mankind, the empire
over which Neville Chamberlain pre-
sides will resist such challenge to
the utmost of its power" Hitler
now is on categorical notice that If
the ATTACK" on zecho-Slovakia lis
to be followed by Others" or is "a
step in the direction of an attempt
to dominate the world by force"-if
that is the meaning of this weeks
events in Central Europe, then the
Nazis have raised grave and serious
questions" to which Britain has but
one answer-"we will never sur
render
While it may be doubted whether
even these stern remonstrances. and
warnings by the two English-speak-
ing democracies will serve to restore
the wrecked Czecho-Slovakian state,
they are nevertheless of a caliber
which must give Hitler anxious
pause. The Nazi juggernaut to date
has had a career of uninterrupted
progress along the ruthless path of
conquest by intimidation. The his
tory made at Washington and Bir-
mingham within the past twenty
four hours indicates that Germany
has reached a point beyond which
her mailed-flst tactics will no longer
be permitted to prevail.
Democratic civilization is clearly
approaching the limit of liberation
Of the Nazi version of the Napoleonic
scourge. Another Europe rose to
crush the supreme menace to it's
liberties century and quarter ago.
Between the lines of Neville Cham
berlain's new realism is plainly to be
dtscerned a conviction that the de-
scendants of Nelson and Wellington
may once again take the lead in ex-
tirpating tyranny that threatens
anew to undermine everything
Auglo-SaxoniSm holds precious.