Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1939-03-02
INTERNATIONAL
NEWS REVIEW
Continued from Page -
Triumphant Dictatorship.

in Ethiopia, in Austria, in CZecho-
slovakia are repeated, and the prin-
ciple of democracy registers another
defeat.
When the French chamber of dep
uties voted for recognition of Franco,
the government mustered majority
of only 81; and when the British
House of Commons heard Prime Min
lister Chamberlain's announcement
that the government had decided to
recognize Franco, there were loud
and indignant shouts of derision, one
speaker going as far as denouncing
the prime minister as a traitor to
the cause of democracy, therefore, to
his own country.
Chamberlain defended himself by
saying that there was no choice
There wasn't, of course! For he has,
by dint of silence and acquiescence
helped to bring about the situation
where no choice could be possible
In order just to keep the record
straight it may not be amiss to call
attention to the fact that although
it had become fashionable to stig-
Matte the Spanish government as
RED" and so on, it was legitimate
ly elected government; in the cab
met there were at one time one or
two communists-there were none
now. The forces fighting in Spain
for democracy were the liberals,
joined gradually by some of the rad
ical groups protesting against the
abuses of power inherent in obsolete
systems of government, and impelled
to action by the horrors of the Primo
de Rivera dictatorship some years
back. The governments war was,
soberly speaking, the fight of a peo-
pie against the principle of one-man
power. That fight was lost.
ReverberatiOns.
There will be reverberationS, for
Mussolini has been awaiting this
moment of new fascist triumph to
provide for him proper opportunity
of advancing his demands on France
for the possession of Tunis, one of
the French colonies in Africa. By
cOnsenting to a fascist victory in
Spain, Great Britain and France have
made it possible for Italy to strength
en- its position in the event that a
war is forthcoming
At the present moment it is most
likely that France, if it goes to the
defense of Tunis, supported by Great
Britain, will be compelled to face
on the opposite side not only Italy
and Germany but also a fascist
Spain so deeply indebted to Musso-
lini and Hitler that Franco cannot
very well evade the moral duty of
helping the two friends who made his
victory possible.
It's not pretty picture, and it has
a tendency to lend reality to the Wis
ion of Hjalmar Schacht who said a
short time ago when he was forced
out of the position as head of the
Reichsbank of Germany:
81 see no daylight beyond March,"
Anti Nazism.
There have been a few feeble at
tempts to protest against the onward
march of dictatorship; the protests
in the national assemblies of Great
Britain and France against the recog-
milton of Franco are in themselves
an indication that spark of popular
anger is hidden somewhere. Then,
too, Hungary has found it necessary
to disband the nazi party within its
border and to arrest its leaders, but
so timid is the Hungarian govern
ment that on that very same day it
affixed its official signature to the
agreement which lines it up with
Germany, Japan and Italy in a coali-
ton against "Bolshevism," meaning,
actually, the Soviet republics of Rus
STA.
In Poland there have been demon
STATIONS against German nazism the
last few days, but at the same time
there were genuflexions before the
august majesty of Mussolini, for the
Polish government and people re-
ceived with great enthusiasm Count
Ciano, Mussolini's son-in-laW and for
eign minister, who came to Warsaw
on an official visit, evidently for the
purpose of strengthening the impress
sion left by Joachim Won Ribbentrop,
German foreign minister, when he
was a guest of Poland a few weeks
ago. The ultimate purpose of these
visits is to weaken the alliance be-
tween Poland and France and, cor
respondingly, draw Poland ever clos
er to the totalitarian states.
ArmamentS.
Chamberlain's guiding idea of
peace in Europe secured by friend
ship between Great Britain-France
and Italy-Germany rests on arma-
ments The British prime minister
the other day experienced a lucid
when he said-what many
others have said and what the whole
world realizes-that if the present |
race is continued it will |
lead all nations to bankruptcy. This
is an axiom which can be mathemat- |