Evening star., 1939-03-26

for rearmament but still have little to
show for their money.
At this moment German-Italian mill
tary superiority over their potential an
tagonists is overwhelming and strategi-
cally their position is better British and
French lines of communication can be
cut by the alo-German-Japanese sea
and air forces while the former can do
little against the totalitarians, who will
obtain most of their raw materials and
food supplies from the vast districts of
Central and Southeastern Europe which
they control
The recall Of the French and the Brit
ish Ambassadors from Berlin, the sending
of cautiously worded notes about the rape
OF Czecho-Slovakia, and public speeches
are not likely to intimidate the dictators.
They know the frame of mind of their
opponents and are acting accordingly.
To make the rear of Germany safe
against any eventuality of conflict with
his Western European opponents, Hitler
has endeavored, and apparently succeed
ed, in securing Russia's neutrality. All
he had to do for that purpose was to send
through his ambassador in Moscow Ger
tain documents for Dictator Stains
perusal. These documents proved con-
clusively that Britain and France have
been urging Germany to expand ter
ritorially to the east at the expense of
Russian territory. Obviously the British
and the French statesmen hoped that a
war with Russia, which despite the pres
ent state of the republic would be long
and costly one, would so drain Germany's
strength that at the end of it she would
be too weakened to press her colonial
ambitions or dominate Western Europe
Albania as a Sacrifice.
To distract Italy from her African
ambitions Lord Perth, Britain's Ambas-
sador to Rome, suggested" to Count
Ciano that Italy might find solace for
her expansionist needs in the physical
occupation Of the Kingdom of Albania
suggestion which was turned down
cold by the Italian Foreign Secretary.
The Western states will have to face
an Italian demand for readjustment of
raw materials sources. This demand
will be strongly supported by the Ger
man dictator who has his own ideas
about how Africa and Asia should be
divided
For the last eight weeks the Italians
have been preparing themselves for a
war in Africa. AS in the months preced-
ing the Ethiopian conquest, detachments
varying between 5000 and $4,000 men
have been dispatched to Libya, on the
Tunisian and Egyptian borders. The air
force has been strengthened, according
to the latest figures, to the respectable
number of $50 bombing and pursuit
planes. The Italian fleet is kept in
readiness at bases in Italy and Africa.
Since March no additional troop move
ments have been reported. This indi-
Gates that the preliminary preparations
have been completed.
The next step will be the dispatch of
note to Paris and London demanding
territorial "compensations" overdue
since the end of the World War. State
Department officials are inclined to be-
lieve that the time for definite answer
will be about as short as the one given
by Hitler to the British and the French
last September. What the reaction of
the Chamberlain and Daladier govern
ments will be nobody can foretell But
there is definite feeling that we have
entered into the final stage of the Euro
pean showdown and that the question of
war or peace will be decided soon.
(Copyright 1939)