Feb. 1
Expectations that Here Hitler, in addressing the Reichstag on the confirmation of his appointment as Chancellor and Leader for a further period of four years on the fourth anniversary of the establishment of the Nazi regime, would be able' effectively to grasp the opportunity. held out to Germany in the speeches! of Mr. Anthony Eden and M. Leon Blum on January 19 and 24 respeetively, have not been fully realized. Perhaps they were too easily based on the belief that the German.
Chancellor would be able to rise superior to the occasion which for him must have been a notable Personal triumph. Allowance was} not made for the' significance of the Chancellor's speech. Mr. Eden in the House of Commons and M._ Blum at Lyons were defining foreign policy to their respective audiences in the full knowledge that they were required to adhere to the strict logic of diplomatic and political practice on which they could be called to account by formed criticism from those possessed of the power to make opinions felt. Herr Hitler was in such restraint, More important to him was the immediate domestic task of vindicating the principles by which his regime had acquired the authority to speak for the whole German people. 'Thus the Dictator found himself' tied by his own! omnipotence. He was impelled to keep alive the issues by which he: had Jearnt to stimulate national enthusiasm in neglect of the prosaic facts of the economic difficulties attendant on the regimentation through which his country is pass~ ing.
If his speech be studiod in the ight of this personal consideration the disappointment which naturally engenders will bu! mitigated. There will be a tendency. rather (0 emphasize the signs of approach to international collaboration than to condemn the Leader's. fidelity to the ritualistic trappings. of the Nazi creed. In the Trans-
Ocean Agency's version of his! speech it is assorted that he defined the differences between Mr. Eden and the German people as, at one point, "unbridgable", Reuter, a fuller summary," avoids that specific epithet, but implicitly en-_ horses its accuracy by extensive quotation from Herr Hitler's ex pression of hhis desire for co-opera tion with the British people. Herr Hitler is far less uncompromising in his courtesy to M. Blum than in his effort to sot Mr. Eden apart from the British nation on a stool whereon repentance is obviously required. Mr. Eden has ample proof of his: countrymen's support of his resistance to the division of Europe into opposing camps for purposes of determining foreign policy. They know from the teaching of their own history that his judgment accords with practical statesman= ship. If they wanted further confirmation Herr Hitler's implacable exclusion of Soviet Russia from the scope of peace ce-opt tion were enough. Moreover M. Blum and Mr. Eden substantial) agreed on the prescription fo1 German ce-operation in European Peace. Let Mr. Eden's words be recalled. After' pointing out the dangers of extreme racialism and offering Great Britain's wholehearted assistance in smoothing the way for Germany's choice of a "full_and equal ce-operation" to} decide "the fate of herself and Europe," Mr. Eden pointed out that mere palliatives and local remedies" were not effective cures: for the present evils, deprecated, evasion of the principles of internaional ce-operation -and concluded:
'The world can not be cured by pacts and treaties and lofty speeches. 'There must be the will to ce-operate by abandoning the doctrine of national exclusiveness, by accepting. every European state as a potential partner in' the general European settlement, by reducing armaments' to the level essential for defence: and by accepting international: machinery for the settlement of disputes according to the League of Nation Comparing those observations with the main lines of Herr Hitler's speech it is impossible to do otherwise than ruefully accept the Chancellor's assertion that the differences of opinion between Mr. Eden and the German people en= dorsing their, Leader's attitude, are "unbridgable" at easton ' one point. Sincerity cannot therefore pretend that Herr Hitler has been able greatly to accelerate the work of peace construction, in his latest restatement of German foreign policy.
Nevertheless there is ground for satisfaction in the Chancellor's in sistence that that point alone ut present escapes remedial trealmont. He may, therefore, be ready to accept more of the Eden-Blum doctrine than appears on the surface. There 1s no reason to despair even in study of his downright references to the colonial issue, There the spokesman of Germany bases her claims "exclusively" on the economic pur pose for which colonies are required, Unfortunately Germany has not seen fit, at present, to accept the invitation to sit on the Raw Materials Committee expressly sot up by the League of Nations to dear with one aspect of colonial economics. Still it is good to have an implied repudiation of the suggestion that Germany's stand on the colonial issue is inspired by sentiment or notions of prestige. Economics can be diplomatically discussed: emotion is not so tract able, "The argument that the evolutionary concept of the League should be, affirmed by reform designed to "that end must imply German readiness to assist in such reform which 1s obtainable within the framework of the Covenant— otherwise the passage has no meaning. The recognition of the neutrality of Holland and Belgium is welcome. Herr Hitler disclaimed being cither economist or theorist; therefore it might be churlish to pin him down strictly to the implica~ tions of his definition of German support of "durable economic cooperation."—Candour, however invites the comment that economic ce-operation cannot function in an international vacuum, It is impos sible to judge the merits of economic proposals without paying some ul~ tention to the politiclat conditions from which they emanate. For the rest, in giving a full mead of admiration to the undoubted success of Herr Hitler's Government creating a new Germany of remarkable physical fitness, attractive vitality and magnetic efficiency, markedly contrasting with the {earlier phase of impaired morale, [it fs disappointing to find that his, appeal has still to be commended by partisan dialectics which can pass muster only in' the absence of critical opponents. In countries, where opportunity for criticism on the basis of access to all shades of opinion stilt prevails, such fustian is cither ignored on the ground of invelovancy or meets with the searching exposure of relentless analysis. Tt were wisest to assume that Herr Hitler is still oppressed by the exigencies of the technique h brought his parly into power. {in those circumstances he may be said to have striven manfully to avoid a direct abnegation of the principles of international ce-opora~ tion. He has shown that he may be ready to lead Germany more firmly in that direction when the time is ripe. Unfortunately, for entirely domestic reasons, thal' time has not arrived. The hesitation is sad; may events protect it from being tract
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.