Evening star., 1940-03-03
HitIer's Tall Order

Hitler S oil Order
Even Der Fuehrer's recent bluster-
ing and Won Ribbentrop's advance
interview with the American Under
secretary of State on Friday could
hardly have prepared Mr.. Welles for
the truculent statements by Chan
cellor Hitler in the Wilhelmstrasse
yesterday. In the course of what
must have been a stormy ninety
four-minute conference at the chan
celery the Nazi dictator laid down
the only terms on which, he claims,
Germany will stack arms. These
outstrip in arrogance and undebata-
blllty anything that ever before
emanated from Germany as war and
peace aims. Unless, as is highly
probable, they were put forward for
home. consumption, Hitler's pro-
posals can do nothing but assure
indefinite prolongation of the war
he provoked six months ago, for they
constitute conditions which the
western powers could not conceiv-
ably consider unless Great Britain
and France are ready to commit po-
litical suicide and simultaneously
confer world hegemony upon the
Nazi autocracy.
AS reported by the Associated
Press, on the basis of sources who
know Adolf Hitler's mind" the bur-
den of his message to President
Roosevelt's fact-finding envoy is
unbelievable in its audacity. The
Reich demands Cd "a German Mon
roe Doctrine for Central Europe"
calling for political domination over
Bohemia -Moravia, Slovakia, Poland
and even Hungary, making the Reich
| proper solid bloc of about 100000
600 population; (2) restoration of
Germany's war-lost colonies; (3)
guarantees that Britain and France
will not "stir up the Balkans or
Scandinavia" a. that general dis
armament must begin by relinquish-
ment of British control of Gibraltar,
the Suez Canal and other strategic
points in the midst of non-British
territory, and 90 that Malta and
Singapore bases must be disman-
tied, all these historic British out
posts being branded by Der Fuehrer
as pirate hangouts.'
Hitler's demands" do not seem to
have been confined to the western
powers with which he is at war.
The United States, too, appears to
have been brought within the scope
of the tall order he laid before Mr..
Welles. Der Fuehrer was consid-
crate enough of this country to de-
clare merely that Improvement of
German-American relations" is
most desirable" indicating, how
ever, that this would be impossible
so long as Washington declines to
name an Ambassador for the Berlin
post vacant since Mr. Wilson's with
drawal in November, 1888.
llC GOldlAUdl ldll SLdl, lUCu do
uncompromising and aggressive
throughout the interview, attempted
| to draw Mr.. Welles into discussion
of what the United States would do
if some Asiatic or European power
tried to stir up trouble in Mexico"
It is not disclosed whether the
Undersecretary of State replied to
this irrelevant interrogatory, though
he might well have rejoined that the
United States in such circumstances
would probably do what Great Brit
ain and France belatedly did as soon
as it became certain that maraud-
ing Germany was trying to "stir up
trouble" all over Europe.
Hitler harped, too, on the familiar
chord that as long as British sea
power controls the important trade
lanes of Europe and Asia, London
"can at any time choke off aspiring
young nations such as Fascist Italy
and Nazi Germany" Here again the
Nazi overload sought to liken Ger
many's attitude to a hypothetical
American contingency. He wanted
Mr.. Welles' view as to how this coun-
try would like some non-American
power to have control of the Panama
Canal" On that score it needs only
to be pointed out that the British
economic stranglehold," the break
ing of which the Nazis profess to be
their supreme goal, includes the
control of the Suez Canal, which is
wide open for the peaceful purposes
of all nations, including Germany.
What Hitler Graves is to smash Brit
ish economic supremacy" and sub
stitute for it Nazi autarchy, change
which the world would contemplate
with something more than mixed
emotions. For one thing, autarchy
would subject the commerce Of the
globe to a species Of tyranny and
selfish domination which would
crush such practical theology. as
Secretary Hulls reciprocal trade
program into unrecognizable frag-
mentS.
Hitler has submitted his asking
price for peace. It is unthinkable
that it is his taking price, for he