Evening star., 1939-03-24
Another Hitler Pledqe


Proclaiming Memel's incorporation
In the Reich yesterday, as he for
mally took possession of Lithuania's
outlet to the Baltic, Chancellor Hitler
said: IT believe that now, in the
main, we have arrived at an end of
this unique process of reparation."
Just previously he justified the
Reich's many acts of territorial
spoliation on the ground that, while
wanting to harm no one, Germany
had been compelled to repair the
damage done to her" Presumably
this is yelled reference to the lost
colonies and the European territory
stripped from the Germans at Ver-
sailles.
The Fuehrer's allusion to satisfac-
ton of Nazi land lust "in the main"
leaves an ominous loophole for other
Preparations" such as the coveted
colonial areas in Africa, the Polish
Corridor, and the tiny tracts of
Eupen and Malmedy, ceded to Bel
gium, and 1900 square miles in North
Schleswig, ceded to Denmark. These
are among the bleeding frontiers"
which Nazi spellbinders ever and
anon describe as borders which Hitler
intends to wipe out.
Before any one is tempted, in a
spirit of wishful thinking, to take
any stock in Hitler's quasi pledge of
self-denial at Memel, it is useful to
recall his record in the realm OF
pledges. It is a consistent record,
for all the pledges were broken.
When the Nazis achieved power in
1888, the Saar Basin, then in French
possession, was uppermost in Eu-
ropes mind. The Chancellor told
the Reichstag early in 1884 that once
the Saar question was solved, Ger
many was willing and determined"
to accept the full obligations and
implications of the Locarno pact.
After plebiscite, the Saar, year
later, was returned to Germany.
Yet one year afterward the Fuehrer
marched German troops into the
Rhineland.
Thereupon, Hitler sought to extern
uate it's remilitarization, in violation
of Locarno, by fresh assurance for
the future. Germany's action, he
affirmed in another Reichstag speech,
was net to be construed as the
prelude to expansion of German
power beyond the Reich's existing
borders. II have removed the issue
of the everlasting revision of Eu-
ropean frontiers from the arena of
German public discussion I" -" I be-
lieve can today regard the struggle
for German equality as over.
We have no territorial demands to
make in Europe"
AS anti-Dollfuss intrigues at Vienna
In the spring of 1885 clearly indicated
that the Nazis were prepared to
gfoment anschluss by force, Hitler in
May told the Reichstag: Germany
has neither the wish nor the inten-
tion to mix in internal Austrian
affairs, or to annex or unite with
Austria" Two years later, on Jan
uary 80, 1887 the Fuehrer, with
the whole world listening in by
radio, Grated: with this declaration
I wish to announce that the era of
so-called surprises has been con-
cluded." On March IL, 1888, Hitler
entered Vienna at the head of his
army and proclaimed defunct and
deserted Austria part and parcel of
the Nazi Reich.
Then came more assurances. "The
eternal dream of the German people
has been fulfilled Germany
wants only peace. She does not
want to add to the sorrows of other
nations -
The rest is history, sad history.
Within seven months of the con-
quest of Austria, the Germans, by
intimidation of Czecho-S -Slovakia and
with the blessings of Messrs. Cham
berlain and Daladier, dismembered
that state and annexed the Sudeten-
land. Only last week, when confess
ing that his dream of "appease-
ment" is over, the British Prime
Minister recalled that the Chan
cellor told me privately, and later
repeated publicly, that settlement
of the Sudeten question was the end
of Germany's territorial claims in
Europe" Half a year after Munich,
Czecho-Slovakia fell completely into
the Nazi NAV. This week Lithuania
was dismembered and Rumania
coerced into what has all the ear
marks of economic bondage to Ger
many.
Whose turn is next?