The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-08-26

0S>~ O~ WY ~Ns~>~ ~> ~s~~s if they had not soiled their fin- gers in the same game.
 The game began in dead earn est shortly after Hitler, the mas ter player of them all, took over the reins in Germany. One of his first moves was to negotiate 8 non-aggression pact with Poland. For ten years there was to be no war between them. Poland and her once bitter enemy, Germany, were to be bosom friends.
 This was a complete reversal for Poland. Chief sore-spots on her body polite long had been Upper Silesia, the Corridor, and the Free City of Danzig, torn from Ger many at Versailles. To protect herself, Poland early had nego- tiated an alliance with France, natural enemy of Germany. France had trained the Poish army, lent money for munitions, steered Polish foreign policy.
 But in 1884 French influence vanished overnight. The alliance with France never was denounced; it was merely put on the shelf. HITLER STRIKES
 Meanwhile Hitler bided his time, built up his army, waited until he was strong enough to strike. That time had almost come by March 2, 1936-almost, but not quite.
 That was the date on which German troops goose-stepped into the Rhineland. an area guaran- ted under the Versailles Treaty as an unfortified buffer for the pro- lection of France.
 All day on March T, the French cabinet debated Hitler's occupa- ton of the Rhineland. To permit the occupation meant the neutral izing of French Qualifications, the neutralizing of the Maginot Line. But to oppose occupation meant risking war.
 What the French did not know
 at that time was that German
 officers had double marching or-
 ders - the first, to advance into
 the Rhineland; the second, to
 retreat in case of French resist
 ance. Secretly, Hitler was not
 ready for a military showdown.
 But what the French did know was that If there was war with Germany, Poland, their one-time ally, was bound by a non-aggres- sion pact not to fight against Germany. Hitler, who now has proved himself the smartest man. ipulator in all Europe, was pro- claiming Poland his staunch and lifelong friend.
 POLAND DESERTS CZECHS
 Next scene in the European game of dcuble-cross shifts to the fall of 1888 and Munich. Hitler was about to walk into the Su- detenland. Roosevelt was making frantic efforts to support belated French and British efforts for general European peace confer ence. Mussolini was amenabe. Hitler was not.
 Suddenly topping the scales against a general conference came Poland and Hungary, both avid for small pieces of Czechoslovakia. And so for Teschen-one small scrap flung from the Hitler con- quest table - Poland contributed to the downfall of Czechoslovakia and to her own present predica- ment.
 POLAND'S END
 Next scene is the preseint-al! to vivid to need portrayal here. Hitler has torn his 10-year non- aggression pact to shreds. Adding insult to injury, he parked his termination of the pact over the radio, not even bothering to notify the Polish government. By now. also, German troops have been flung down into the long arm which once was Czechoslovakia, ready to close in on Poland from the south.
 if Poland had not double-
 crossesd her Czech neighbors,
 if she had not deserted France, she would not be where she Is
 teddy.
 RUSSIA NEXT
 To complete the picture. an- other scene from the future might be inserted here. So far t is pure- ly hypothetical, but quite plaus- ible.