Evening star., 1939-03-26

CHANCELLOR HITLER.
This is the second of series of
articles on ,Dorld eDents ,Dhich Brit
aims Ueteran maritime statesman UiH
1Orite for publication in America. The
articles ,uill appear exclusively In The
Star in Washington.
ANT1BEs. French Riviera.-1 am
writing this article In the south Of
France. The hills around are crowned
with Notifications to resist a possible
italian invasion. Some of them are
old, but many have been constructed
recently.
In September, when France was on
the brink Of war with the military die
tators, the peasants were preparing to
flee into the interior OF France with
their belongings This last move of
Hitler has revived the sense Of general
apprehension in this area. Mussolini
may move next.
The possibilities are numerous and
widespread. They extend from the
German Ocean to the Mediterranean
and the Red Sea. You have only to re-
count the countries which live now in
daily and nightly dread of the blow
falling upon them-Rumania, Poland,
Yugoslavia, Switzerland, Holland, Bel
gium, Tunis, French Somaliland and
France itself
To the inhabitants of Europe, with
out distinction of age or sex, war is a
reality. In September last, trenches
were dug and air shelters constructed to
protect men, women and children
against bombs from the air, and gas
masks by the million were distributed to
save them from being strangled by
poison gas
Europe Reused by Czech Grab.
The shameless grabbing Of Czecho-
Slovakia by Germany has reused Europe
at last to such hurricane of anger
and apprehension as has not been Wit
messed since the invasion Of Belgium
1t has shaken off the moral torpor from
which no outrage on liberty and right
has seemed able to shake this continent,
whose ethical impulses appeared to be
exhausted by tremendous struggle for
international rights.
The annexation of Austria by force
left Europe apathetic. The suppression
OF democracy in Spain by German and
Italian ornaments did not seem to pro-
duce ripple on the conscience even of
free countries, each of which in its turn
has given official recognition to this
outrage. The dismemberment of Bo-
hemia, the handing over of the defenses
OF the Czecho-Slovakian Republic to
Hitler, thus leaving that state at his
mercy, were almost hailed with a sigh
of relief.
Chamberlain and Daladier were well
coined as conquerorS when they returned
from that abject capitulation, and chap
lets of olive leaves were placed in their
brows. The independence of Abyssinia
had long ceased to worry nations that
had once vowed protection to that
doomed land. The empire which took
the lead in the protest against that act
OF rapine sent her leading statesmen
to Rome to toast the success of the
infamy. When the British prime min
AoVSA AoAoCu AAo glass 10 Cne lCalld1
Emperor of Abyssinia, Britain as a
whole took it without murmur.
The building up by the dictators of
huge armies and air fleets and for
midable navies did not seem, for three
years. to cause any deep uneasiness in
Britain and France.
America Knew Peril Of Crisis,
Their rearmament programs Just trun-
died along sluggishly and clumsily. When
they almost blundered into war last Sep
tember they had no effective protection
for their cities against air raids. That
discovery gave them temporary fright,
but once the scare was over there were
signs of lapse into mood of vapid
complacence. We were settling down
comfortably to the new world rearranged
for us by Hitler
There were still few independent OBJ
servers who were uneasy, and it is fair
to admit that America seemed to under
stand much better than we did how
perilous was a situation in which democ-