To the Editor of the "Norra-Cumva Dany News"
Sm—This being the day when the German and Austrian residents in China are called on to vote whether or not their countries shall be reunited, I take the opportunity 1o congratulate the English Press on the sensible view they have lately taken im this matter. Whereas until quite letely the British journalists emphasized the sanctity of all treaties, and roundly denounced the violation of any of them, they now seem to admit, at least tacitly, that treaties signed under duress carry with them no more moral obligation than a cheque signed in the middle of the night with a burglar holding. a pistol at the drawers temple.
No document embodying rules and -regulations which thereafter shall govern: he conduct of the contracting parties, is worthy of respect and need be faithfully fulfilled, unless 1 both parties to the contract concluded it of their own free will, and unless its conditions and stipulations are reciprocal Those that were forced upon the vanquished by the victor at the point of the sword, can and should be broken as soon as the party which had to submit to the victor's with so many wrongs committed by the Allied dictators that must he righted, so many injustices perpetrated which have to be adjusted, "there will be no dearth of great deeds for Hitler to accomplish for a long time to come, consequently there is no danger that he will have to resort to what you termed "desperate courses" to retain his hold on the German people.
There is a shrewd English proverb to the effect that "every dog has his day", which is very much to the point when trying to get the right Perspective of present events. Germany has been ordered about, bullied, brow beaten and dictated to long enough while she was weak unto death after the war. If, now that Germany is strong again, Hitler does a little dictating of his own, it will be a useful change, and a salutary lesson for everybody.
Fr. ROER.
Shanghai, Apr. 9.
***If it is possible to agree with much of what Mr. Reiber has written, despite the vehemence which spoils ihe presentation of his case, surely much comfort will be felt by the non-aggressor nations in his quotation of ihe proverb that "Every dog has his day." "It is a most comforting thought that days have a habit of coming to an end. There is another saying Which might also be remembered an that is to the effect that he who lives by the sword shall perish by the sword. dictation at the time, is once more strong enough to do so.
There has been lately a lot of loose talk about dictators who are blamed for all the evils from which humanity suffers at present, I quite agree, but with the qualifying reservation that the dictators which I consider responsible, are the puny autocratic Allied statesmen who held Europe's fate in their hands at the end of the world war; who in their victory-drunk, vindictive state of mind arbitrarily tore Middle Europe into so many pieces without the least regard for ethnological or linguistic boundaries—distinguishing features of "which they appear to have had only very rudimentary knowledge—and then patched these shreds together again as their fancy led them, into kind of a crazy quilt, How anybody with only a teaspoonful of brains could ever have imagined that such an outrageous violation of the Middle European peoples' political rights and racial homogeneity could be sustained for any length of time, passes all understanding now that the world is in a soberer mood.
But whether they liked it or not, those Middle European nations, bled to the white and starved into submission, were ordered to sign on the dotted line the treaties which the Allied dictators held ready for them; those treaties about the "sanctity" of which, and the violation of such sanctity there has been so much in" dignant raving in the press. However, that the many wrongs committed and the senseless outrages perpetrated by the Allied despots, Who together with their subservient satellites (the whole bunch being collectively known as the League of Nations) held the world's fate in their hands at the end. of the world wai www: sooner ur LET Nave to-ye pat right again, was obvious. Hitler is doing it now.
One of the Allies'. most helpless "war babies" was Austria in its pos! war mutilated state. Chiselled down by the Allied Great Moguls till only a miserable rump remained, it was plain to all that this derelict, the remnants of a once great and mighty nation, was condemned to die a lingering death unless receiving some support, and such support has now materialized: Mother Germania has now taken the little waif, which was always one of her faintly, to her bosom and will see to it that no more harm shall be done to it by arrogant despots, on the plea that Some crazy treaty entitles them to such privilege.
Some strong men tear up packs of playing cards; others rend telephone books asunder. Hitler- tears up treaties; treaties of the kind that Should have been torn to pieces and the bits relegated to the furnace long ago. "More power to his elbow say we.
Unfortunately in doing so, hardships cannot always be entirely avoided, Where wood is hewn chips will fly.. But surely no such hard—Ships will be inflicted on anybody as the German citizens of China were subjected to in the spring of 1919, when all men, women, children and babes-in-arms were roped in from all over China and penned up in a Concentration camp in Nantao, with Chinese soldiers standing guard over them until the necessary ships had been brought here, when they were all led along the Bund in a disgraceful procession to Hongkew, put into the cargo holds of four. English steamers like cattle, and deported. Except a few dollars pocket money and a limited quantity of personal effects they had to, leave everything behind, and these possessions were then "appropriated" by the Custodian of Enemy Property.
Incidentally, this writer cheerfully perjured himself at the time by making a solemn declaration that he possessed nothing more than what he stood up in. Ask me no questions and I will tell you no lies!
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.