The Wilmington morning star., 1940-05-22
Editorial Comments
From Other Angles
THE PROSPECT
New York Herald Tribune

Another surviving fragment of the Versailles
settlement was ruthlessly Cancelled yesterday
as Hitler peremptorily reannexed the Belgian
district of Eupen : Malmedy to his Reich;
while at the same time the Dutch received
from him their new overload in the person of
none other than Seyss-Inquart, the original
Trojan horse" and engineer of Austria's
downfall. Such things are faint reminders of
what this world will actually be like if Hitler
Withstand may be like before the summer is
out. They are first hints of the actual prospect
that would confront the United States if the
desperate defense of the French and British
peoples against the tide of Nazi barbarism
should fail. And that prospect must be faced,
strong as are our hopes that the defense will
triumph.
If Hitler should win he would have his gang
ster proconsuls in London and Paris as they
have already been established in The Hague,
Oslo, Warsaw and Prague; they would rule
France and Britain through Nazi armies of oc-
%cupation and, doubtless, fifth column puppet
governments. Italy would probably fall heir to
Gibraltar and Suez and the Balkans; all the
rest of Europe, save Russia, would either be di-
rectly under the swastika or compelled to fol-
low not only domestic but commercial and for
eign policies dictated from Berlin. Last weeks
collapse on the New York Stock Exchange gave
some faint indication of what that fact alone
would mean to our own economy and of the
profound repercussions which it would spread
through the whole fabric of our national life.
But the control of Europe and its economy
would be only the beginning. The Dutch, Bel
gian, French and British overseas empires
would present Hitler with his first problem in
the Nazi Redistribution Of the world Italy.
again, might fall heir to a good deal in North
Africa-Syria, Egypt, Tunis, Morocco could
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France and Britain were PROSTATE. Hitler
would, of course, demand the return of the
former German colonies in South Africa, but
whether he would get them or not might de-
pend upon what happened to the British fleet.
If it avoided destruction, it might retreat upon
Canada-or Singapore. And air power, for all
it's recent triumphs, is still incapable of reach
ing beyond the great oceans when the step
ping stones are guarded by surface ships.
Hitler has comparatively little sea power, and
Mussolini's is a Mediterranean navy, without
the range for distant action. The outlying por-
tions Of the French and British empires might
be held. But they could be held-Just as the
Dutch East Indies could be held against Japan
- only by the support of the United
States. And the United States in any
event would be bound to move very quickly into
the forefront of Hitler's consciousness. For the
task of governing a fiercely embittered Europe
from Berlin, and of attempting to administer a
large remaining section OF the eaflh, would not
be either safe OF easy SO long as the United
States remained-at once a shield for the worlds
greatest remaining undeveloped territory, in
South America, and a center for every form OF
resistance engendered by the Hitler tyranny.
Col. Lindbergh is still confident that we could
continue to mind our own business. But unless
we were willing to shut our gates, censor our
press to Hitler's demand and conform our for
eign policy to Nazi requirements, it would not be
easy. For one thing. the British monarchy would
probably be established in "Canada-would we de-
fend it there or not? If Hitler did not move
straight on, upon, the full tide of "oynamism"
to exploit Latin America and reduce the United
States, he would certainly begin to establish
the bases from which later on it could be done.
What would we do if he claimed Greenland, Ber'
uda, the Bahamas, the French, British and Dutch
West Indies, as legitimate spoils of war! The
United States would be forced either to occupy
such territories itself, regardless of H1tler's dis
pleasure, or see them appropriated, developed
and presently converted into the bases and cen
tiers from which the reduction of the last cltaoel
of freedom in the world could be erected.
These very briefly, are some of the prospects
which would lie Immediately before us, IL tne
Franco British armies should fail. None OF tnis