The Wilmington morning star., 1940-03-06
Editorial Comments
From Other Angles
SMART WORK
Charlotte News

Hitler has used the Welles visit with ar
astuteness worthy of MachiavellIs ideal of the
Prince.
It was unfortunate for his purposes that his
airmen chose this particular time to bomb and
machine-gun a helpless passenger liner, killing
more than a hundred persons. 1t pretty effec
tually solves the mystery of what happened
to the Athena. And it makes merely ridiculous
the roars about Outrage against humanity and
international law, piracy, lawlessness,' which
emanated from Berlin over the Altmark case.
Obviously, under the Nazi definition, piracy
means exactly what the Nazis want 1t to mean.
But on other counts, Hitler's score is nearly
perfect. He used the Welles visit to make a
powerful bid for Italian and Japanese aid by
sounding off to the effect that Britain's
"stranglehold'' on the seas must be broken
that the Suez, Gibraltar and Singapore fort
resses. must be abandoned and dismantled. 1t
is precisely what Italy and Japan have been
hollering for, and it amounts to saying That
the British Empire must be totally destroyed.
And at the same time, he struck a great
blow for the further befuddlement OF world,
and particularly American, opinion, with MS
argument that just as the United states, as
the great power in the Western Hemisphere
has assumed leadership and responsibility Tor
the whole, so Germany, as the great power
in central Europe, had the right and the moral
obligation to do the same thing in that terri.
tory.
In point Of fact, of course, the cases OF the
United States and Germany are not parallel.
The United States has committed a good many
crimes in its time, as by sending the marines
into Nicaragua, grabbing largely unoccupied
lands from Mexico, etc. But the United States
has never asserted any systematic policy OF
going down into Central and South America
and anneXing whole peoples.
1t has never at any time set up a policy of
Systematically destroying the Latin-American
culture and language, replacing it with its own
.--,- = I~~ ~oror .I0~{1I
any policy of Systematically eXterminating the
Intellectual classes in Latin-America, Of grab.
bling the property of atin-Americans and hand
ing it over to citizens of the United States
as members of a superior race, reducing the
native population to slavery. 1t has never set
out to close all universities and
burn all Latin-American books on the ground
that inferior races have no business with such
things. 1t has never required Latin-Americans
to step into the gutter and tip their hats as
the superior Nordics' passed by. 1t has never
conceived it to be any part Of its moral duty
in the case to civilize the Latin-Americans by
concentration camps and a gentle Gestapo.
Moreover, i. might be as well for Americans,
before they begin to shout too enthusiastically
that Britain doesn't have a right to her EN-.
pire, that Singapore, Suez, Gibraltar ought to
be dismantled, to remember a few things. One
of them is that the nation which "hogs' up
the single greatest treasure house on earth
happens to be the United states. ana another
is that the Panama Canal stands across the
commerce of the world just as certainly as
does Suez or Gibraltar or Singapore.
Actually, of course, what Hitler proposes is
to destroy the British Empire and replace it
with a far worse one-a Nazi empire: But his
stroke is nonetheless a very effective one. What
he is up to is d~iverting attention from the real
facts in the case by raising notwithstanding
but phoney questions. And despite the plain
evidence against him, he will undoubtedly sue.
coed in further confusing a great many already
badly-confused people.