Evening star., 1940-11-05
Nazis Are Interested,
But Maintain Studied
Reticence on Election
Officials Are Discreetly
Silent, but Feel Outcome
Will Affect War
BY WALLACE r.. DEUEL.,

BY WALLACE r. DEUEL.,
Chicago Daily News Foreign Correspondent.
BERLIN, Nov. 5.-Both official
and unofficial Germany watch the
American election today with more
interest-and less press publicity
than they have watched any other
ballot in the United States since
1916.
Interest is great because the
Reich is always interested in impor-
tant events in the United States in
general, because it Is intrigued by
Franklin D. Roosevelt as an out
standing personality and, most of
all, because the man in the street
here, believes, rightly or wrongly,
that the result of the election will
provide an indication of Americas
Intentions toward taking part in the
war, and that the American inten-
tions will affect the duration and
probably even the outcome of the
war.
Despite this interest, however, the
Nazi press and radio have had less
to say about the election than they
have said about any comparably i'm
portant event in the United States
for a generation.
Germans Explain Reticence.
The official explanation for this
feticence on the part of propa-
ganda machine whose worst enemy
could not accuse it of being habit
TALLY reticent is that the result of
the election will make no difference
IN the outcome of the war. This is
true, officials argue, for two main
reasons:
First, because both Roosevelt and
Wilkie agree on matters of foreign
policy:
Second, because the conditions of
the war are such that the United
States cannot produce planes and
other war materials, or organize
other forms of aid to Great Britain,
In sufficient volume and quickly
ence on the outcome of the war no
matter who is President or what
kind of a Congress is elected.
The British have no continental
base from which they could con-
duct a land war against Germany
even if America could raise, train
and equip an army and send it to
Europe within the next few months,
the NaZis argue. Also, even if such
help could be organized in time, 1t
could not be shipped to Europe
through the German U-boat and
plane blockade, the Nazis claim
And finally, even if materials and
other forms of aid could be shipped
TO England, they could not be eff
fectively employed because the Brit
ish Isles are too vulnerable to Ger
man air attacks, the Nazis say.
Some Believe U. S. Greedy.
There is even one school of Nazi
thought her on the question of
American attitude toward the war,
which argues that the United States
has no intention of placing really
effective aid &C the disposal Of the
British, that all claims to the con-
trary in America are only camou-
hage, and that what the United
States is really out to do is to take
over for itself as much as possible
of Great Britain's powers, possess
sions and position in the world
which "pretenses" of intensions to
help England are supposed to make
easier.
Attributing such Machiavellian
eynicism and astuteness to American
foreign policy may ring strangely in
American ears, but it is characteristic
Of more than one judgment of the
United States formed in exceedingly
important quarters here.
Apart from these officially avowed
reasons for restraining public COM
ment on the American election, there
are other considerations, too, which
are nonetheless real for being little
talked about.
For one thing, the Nazis have no
interest in encouraging the interest
of the people in an event over which
the regime can exercise no control.
For another thing, the Nazis have
wanted to avoid providing material
for either party by doing or saying
anything that could be interpreted
rs taking sides. Generally speaking,
they have refrained from action
which could be interpreted as inter-
fering in an internal American af-
fair
Old Arguments Recalled.
And not the least of all, there Is
another reason for the official re-
ticence: For the Nazis said fire.
quently and loudly for several years
before the present war that the
Roosevelt administration was guilty
Of warmongering, but that the
American people as such were
friendly toward Germany and op-
posed to much that the administra-
ton was doing There is not much
point in emphasizing this line of
argument If the American people are
now to re-elect Roosevelt.
For all these reasons, the Nazis
have followed the same line of
reticence on the elections that they
have followed on American affairs
in general since the outbreak of the
war. Fuehrer Hitler has given one
interview to an American news
agency and Reichmarshal Hermann
Goering two, to the same agency,
In recent weeks disclaiming any de-
sire or intention of action detri-
mental to American interests. Mar
shal Goering, in his latest inter-
view, has accused the British Of
interfering in the election.
The Voelkischer Beobachter and
the Berliner Boersen-zeitung have
fred a few last-minute shots at
such alleged "warmongers" as Am
bassadors William C. Bullitt, An
thony j. Drexel Biddle and Joseph
p. Kennedy. The Nazi press, in
general, has made much of the
recent interview of Georges Bon
net, former French foreign minis
ter, in which he referred to
Frances false friends" In the
United States.