The Wilmington morning star., 1947-09-01
Pattern Of Another War

Pattern Of Another War
Eight years ago today Adolf Hitler
sent his armed forces into Poland.
Scarcely had the news reached Wash
ington when President Roosevelt sent
identical messages to Great Britain,
France, Germany, Italy and Poland
asking each for a public pledge that it
would not lombard civilian populations
and unfortified cities during "the tragic
conflagration with which the world is
now confronted"
The same press dispatches announc.
ing the Presidents appeal also brought
an eyewitness account of the Nazi in
vasion of Poland from Warsaw by Lloyd
Lehrbas. Mr.. Lehrbas said he was hold
ing telephone in one hand and a gas
mask in the other. He had an open wire
to Budapest and was telling about the
blitz as he gathered meager facts from
various quarters in the confusion that
existed everywhere. He could hear the
wall Of warplanes, he said, and could see
| fourteen German bombers which evil
IDENTIFY were intent on destroying all
bridges over the Vistula river, Poland S
outlet to the sea.
It was in this initial attack that the
Germans gave their answer to Presi-
dent Roosevelt's appeal, and set the
pattern of the war; Mr.. Lehrbas' dis
patch included this significant para
graph: "A large number of women and
children were killed, government COM
munique said, when German planes
bombed refugee train from Poznan
at the Kutno station, seventy miles
west of Warsaw"
1t is terrible indeed to think of the
millions Of noncombatants killed with
out cause during the succeeding years
of World War II, in Poland, in England,
in France, in Russia, in Germany, in
the islands of the Pacific-all stem
ming from the slaughter of those wo-
men and children at the Kutno station
in Poznan.
And it is equally terrible to think
OF the greater slaughter of innocent
millions, probaly tens of millions, if the
world should be plunged into another
war; With the atomic bomb reality
with robot planes of world girdling
range, with guided missiles and the
other frightful weapons all nations are
developing, the first battle of another
war could wipe out whole cities, in
twenty-four hours whole nation.
The fear of this fate led to the
establishment of the United Nations,
the chief task of which was to main
tain peace after it had restored peace.
The flareup in Indonesia shows how
signally it has failed. Whether it. ulti-
mately can achieve the goal set by the
Charter written at San Francisco is a
moot question. Certainly it cannot hope
to do so as long as the veto power re-
mains and is abused as the Russians
have abused it.
An alternative would seem to be de-
centralization of population and indus
try. Great metropolitan centers could
not hope to survive a single blitz. With
the people scattered and industries re-
located over the countryside some peo-
pie and some plants would escape.
The United States, which would he
the target of World War III, seems to
have but two courses open to it, if the
United Nations proves impotent. One
is decentralization, which would impose
an insurmountable barrier to business.
manufacturing and commerce. The
other would be to become an armed
camp from coast to coast, with such a
huge supply Of the newest weapons that
no nation, no later Hitler, would dare
strike the first blow.