The Wilmington morning star., 1945-05-25
The Exchanging Germans

General ElSennOWerS order OF arrest Tor the
German High Command and Doenitz and his
government dissolved is justified by the his.
tory Of two thousand years of war making and
current records. Destined to stand trial as
war criminals it can only be hoped that NO
sentence less than death will be melted out to
ALL
That there was any thought of using either
Doenitz or the High Command even in the
grave emergency of restoring order in h e
Reich is hard to understand. The Germans
have been the chief disturbers OF the peace
of Europe for twenty centuries. In all that
time they have changed little in most things
and not at all in their spirit of conquest.
The introduction to an abridged edition Of
Gibbons "decline and Fall Of the Roman
Empire recently published, the author, Will
son Whitman, points this out with exceptional
clarity. Discussing the modern" conveniences
of the Romans and the consequent weakening
of the moral fibre of the Empire, Mr.. Whit
man writes:
1.-The characteristic Roman attitude was the
complacent superiority of established civiliza-
ton confronted with change When they met
the barbarians with too little, too late they said
Rome might lose battle but she always won
the war. It was the barbarians who tried new
methods-Commando tactics raiding at night
with blackened faces; heavy new weapons and
Observation-Disclosures; swift movenent-th e
hitz; destruction of country 'scorched
earth. After Hadrians wall, their Maginot
60
gued that nothing could reconcile the barbar-
ians to peace Until they experienced in their
own country the calamities of war; and Pro-
bus, crossing the Rhine into Germany, as well
as Julian, who won his German war before
he sent food from Britain into the Rhineland,
succeeded for time by determined action.
But mainly the Romans relied on simple,
craven appeasement, and it failed. They tried
it with the Germans and on the African coast;
they tried it again and again, with large
brides and bright hopes. Always it failed
"As for the barbarians, the Germans are
the first to claim that they have changed
little since first they emerged from obscurity
to war on the civilized world. According to
Gibbon, they were ignorant, drunken, stupid
and proud of it; their sole virture was bravery
in war and their sole enterprise adoption of
effective arms. Winning, they used techniques
which repetition had made familiar; they took
hostages to hold ravaged territory, rated their
own lives higher than those of civilian persons
tried in the same courts and punished the
liberal minded for harboring dangerous
thoughts
Note. This is written Of Germany two
thousand years ago. It might with equal &C.
curacy by said Of the Germany which has
now surrendered to superior forces.
The High Command in all major respects
is no different than the German barbarians
who emerged from obscurity to war on the
civilized world" Doenitz is no better The en-
tire German war element obviously has had
the same viewpoint. Fortunately the proph-
ecy Of the general OF old Rome, that nothing
could reconcile the barbarians to peace until
they experienced in their own country the ca
lamities of war;" has been fulfilled Now that
Germany has been laid waste and its armies
overthrow, there can safely be no traffic
with survivors in the military regime II any,
thing, General Eisenhower's order was o o
long delayed.
-V-