The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-10-09

Whereas victory lulled the vietors, defeat only Sh0rpened the wits of the vanQuished
 They found weaknesses In our eagerneSs to forget and make up in our embarrassment about our war hatred, in our disregard Of the letter of the treaty law, which we made ourselves, in the distrust thta always springs up between Allies, in our sympathy for them. selves because we believed them to be underdogS, and above all, m our yearning for better bust. ness than usual"
 Hang tho Kaiser" We had said, and with our Allies solemnly included clauses in the Versailles Treaty calling for the punishment of German war criminals, But when the Germans protested and their officers rattled their swords, We changed the subject, We ae- septed Q trial Of war criminals that was no more than a farce,
 Our own indifference to these clauses convinced the Germans that given time and little help from their foreign Sympathiaers the whole treaty could be seyUpped, until then, they would emaseulate 1t as quickly as possi. ble And they determined that we should help them,
 To shield Q criminal is not Christian; 1t Is merely to become an accessory after the fact, But we shall be asked to shield erimi- nalS, Hardly had the first tent0- tive signs of Q United Nations vte- tory shown themselves when the arguments in favor of forgiveness and lenieney to the Stil undefeat- cd enemy aSSNiled at the same time our eyes, our ears, and our hearts, We can scarcely avoid e concerted Sympathy-o offensive with tho new peace treaty.
 It will be much more powerful than the one to which We were subjected last time, And that was effective enough, The minute we laid down our arms In 1918, the friends of Germany and the Ger. mans themselves went to work on our respect and affection for the fashioned, nonmilitaristie Ger. man, which he deserved, trading on our belief in the peaceful in. tontions of those other Germans who deserved neither,
 Our soldiers, diplomats, business. men and newspapermen la Germany In 1919 could see with their own eyes how thin the people were, how shabbily clad,
 All the Germans We met blamed the Allied blockade for their mis. cry, That saddled us with feel Ing of guilt, although blockade is war weapon like any other, and when were war weapons ever pleasant9 Tho Germans had done oil the blockading they could, with their U-boats and their raid- CTS indiscrimlnately sinking ships, That blockade wasn't mentioned, We were busy being tetful,
 But there were other causes for the German plight, In those cold winters of World War I, the Ger. mans were diverting quantities of their staples, potatoes and grain, to the manufacture of alcohol and other military syntheties, The population got whatever potatoes were left over, often frozen and half rotten because of the break down of transportation, What rolling stock remained In work. Ing shape was used to carry troops wherever the High Command wanted them, from Brussels to KieV, fom Riga to Bagdad,
 Then there were the black mar. kets. People who had money and who knew farmers or two in the country could buy whatever they wanted. The rich hoarded, and so reduced eVeryhody's rations, Much of the hoarded food spoiled from improper storage. But the German people were hungry and had been hungry for years, It was easier to blame outsiders than to look for the real cause. The Jews came in for an unjust share of abuse, and above oil, the criminal blockade. !" Not until the late ip20's did AEneFl. can olflcers, studying at the Berlin Technical high school, become hwRre of the extent to which fodsti1l had gone Into industrial war ex- ploltatlon. Then it was too late.
 The superb physical condition of the German troops as they in Vaded country after country in World War n astonished all mili- tars and Journalistic observers.