Evening star., 1939-01-31


may think of the Fuehrer-and he
Is wrong in assuming that the AM
erican press does not deal fairly
with his utterances-there can be
no doubt that he has made an eff
fectlve case against postwar dip
lomacy of the allied powers and
against the isolationist policies of
the United States in relation to
world peace.
Not the slightest justification ex-
lists for the use of coercion and
force or the weapons of inhuman-
ity on the part of the German
Nazis, but there will be many here
who will agree that the basic causes
which have given provocation to
Naziism are not all inaccurately
stated by the Hitler speech.
= Counterpart of Diplomacy.
Thus the seizure by the allies of
the German colonial possessions and
consequent exploitation under the
mandate" scheme was merely a
counterpart of the same allied dip
lomacy which levied impossible rep
erations on the weakened German
republic after the armistice.
When Hitler points out that the
congested population of Germany
needed an outlet for its exports and
That access to raw materials was
denied the German people he made
his most telling point. For he now
blames the allied policies for the
"autarchy" or enforced self-suffi-
cheney policy of Germany, with all
the collateral extremes derived from
It. He says, in effect, that Ger
many had no choice but self-regi-
mentation. He does not condone
the eXcesses which followed. He
implies that they we're produced by
the economic chaos which imitation
OF currency brought to Germany
In the 1920s.
The Hitler address described very
wildly the results of world diplo-
macy which cuts off producing ma
tions and denies them a trade out
let. There are in America many
who believe in suffciency They
are trying in every way to break
down even the Hull reciprocity trade
agreements, which represent only a
modest attempt to build the total
volume of world trade and increase
= the stability of world commerce.
Asked to Ponder Plight.
The German leader asks Great
Britain and France to ponder we'll
the plight of nation hemmed in
on all sides and obstructed in her
attempt through colonial expansion
to find an outlet for her excess Of
people needing employment Will
they agree to consider the German
demand for the return of her COL
onies, or will the world compel Ger
many to adopt desperate measures
10 recover raw material areas at
the expense of weaker neighbors?
The Nazi chieftain insists that
territorial rearrangements can come
only through a process of reason
or through process of force, and
he implies that between the armi-
stice of 1918 and the day Hitler
assembled to power there was op-
portunity for the processes of rea-
son to be eXerted, but to no avail.
Where Herr Hitler's thesis collapses,
however, is that he assumes he could
not have gotten, even since the
Munich pact of 1888, more through
the process of reason than through
the process of threatened force. Un-
til his speech at Saarbruecken last
autumn there was tendency here
and elsewhere in world capitals to
re-examine the problems of Ger
many in relation to the German Co.
lonial question with sympathy and
understanding. The brutal attacks
on innocent people, engendered by
-Nazi authority, alienated almost
overnight whatever instinct for re-
examination there was developed by
the Munich accord.
Shot Through With Threats.
Unhappily, the world does not
move forward by charges and coun-
tercharges and by the provocation
Of more hate and more bitterness.
The horrors of war are as much
feared and detested by the German
II