The Charlotte News

Saturday, August 26, 1939

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: This day's news of possible further appeasement by Neville Chamberlain to Hitler has Cash in a bitterly sarcastic mood.

In fact, the invasion of Poland had been planned for August 26, but was delayed by Hitler until September 1 because of the mutual assistance pact announced by England.

At the beginning of his August 29 address to Commons, Chamberlain complained of reports circulating in the press based on unfounded rumors and even complete fabrications of alleged replies from Chamberlain to Hitler as had been reported the day before.

Still, however, no mention appears to have been made publicly or privately one way or the other regarding any particular "formula" for negotiations of which the below editorial remarks, other than one anticipated only by the Nazis; perhaps in the muddle of inter-communiques, the press reports took the acquiescence generally for conference in the face of Hitler's demands as acquiescence to the particulars of those demands as well.

Regardless, the Chamberlain Government, to its credit, remained consistent, expressly relying on its experience with Hitler betraying the Munich accord with respect to Czechoslovakia, in holding that the territorial integrity of Poland would have to be respected in any negotiations.

Hitler chose another path.

The British responded, not as at Munich.

Wholesale Surrender Of All Hitler Asks Would Be Easier On The World's Nerves

If the swarming rumors are true, Neville Chamberlain has found a "formula" which will save everybody's face "except Poland's" and the world is in for more "appeasement of Adolf Hitler." It may not be so, but in view of the past performances of the extraordinary English Primary Minister it seems pretty likely. If so, then it may be said at once that the "formula" is a mere matter of words, that Poland is to be cynically sold out in the face of the signing of the treaty with Britain yesterday and that Adolf Hitler is to have all his way.

It may well be that such a sacrifice is justified. Part of the curious melange of ideas which make up the Hitler philosophy is taken from Oswald Spengler's "The Decline of the West." In that book Spengler argues that civilizations like men, have their lifecycle, and that their final destruction is as inevitable as the death of an individual. And in their last days, he goes on, the men who represent the dying civilization grow so feeble and effete that they no longer have the energy to fight for their fading ideas and ideals, that war becomes for them the most horrible of all possibilities. And before the onslaught of the new and vigorous barbarians who are the forerunners of the new order of things, they fold up and take it lying down.

Certainly, just that thing has happened many times, most notably in the case of the Romans before the inrush of the earlier German barbarians. What is more still, it may be argued that even if the Romans had fought the result would still have been exactly the same--chaos and the triumph of barbarism as a preparation for the emergence of the Western civilization about the end of the Fourteenth century.

Under the analogy which Mr. Hitler himself expressly applies, you can say that war now means a collapse into chaos and barbarism in any case--that Western civilization as we have known it is done for if war comes, that we all will end with a military dictatorship along Nazi lines--and that, therefore, it is best to accept the inevitable with the least possible sacrifice of human life.

But if so, then the West ought to try to face a boldly, and quit engaging in wish-thinking. Perhaps we are too effete for even that. But the sensible thing to do is certainly to face the fact that Germany, having already returned to barbarism, is willing to fight for its purposes, that the rest of us aren't--and to make what terms with her we can instead of eternally living in an uproar that always hands in one more triumph for Hitler.

Surely, to talk of compromise in the case of Poland is plain nonsense. According to the reports, what Hitler demands is that he be given Danzig as a sine qua non to "negotiating" with Poland over the Corridor, Upper Silesia, and a "protectorate" over the rest of the country. In return, he is supposed to give his promise that this is the "last territorial demand I shall make in Europe" (for the seventh time), to sign a 25-year non-aggression pact with Britain, and to come into a disarmament conference "with the pistol on the table" (his own words in response to Mr. Roosevelt some months ago).

What all that means anyone who remembers Munich and Czechoslovakia should know. It means that Adolf Hitler is going to take all of Poland. Merely, as with the Czechs, he'll probably take it by piecemeal instead of all at once. Danzig is the key to Polish independence as certain as the Sudetenland was the key to Czechoslovakian independence. And if he is going to be given Danzig, then the rational thing to do is frankly to give him all Poland at once. The result will be the same, and it will avoid future uproar.

This thing doesn't, as a matter of fact, even save anybody's face. It is not only a sell-out of Poland, it is a flat and appalling surrender on the part of Britain. When it is done, Rumania, Greece, Yugoslavia, and Turkey, all of whom have some realism left, will hasten to climb into the German camp. The Scandinavian nations will have no choice either. Nor will Holland and Belgium. After that, it is likely to be France's turn, for Germany has a much better claim to Alsace and Lorraine than to any part of Poland.

What the world will then face is an endless series of choices between war or more Munichs. And if there is no point at which it will fight--a thing that if this rumor is true, seems manifest--then the sane thing to do is to call a conference, ask Mr. Hitler humbly to state all his demands at once and proceed to give 'em to him. That way we shall at least be able to rest our nerves.

Threat Of War Sends Little Stabilizers To Cover

Life is a very amenable business and man an immensely superior being, captain of his soul and monarch of all he surveys and all that, until a thunderstorm comes piling up or a hurricane--or a depression. Then he feels his immense helplessness in the grasp of natural forces. And so with nations and their grandiose fiscal schemes.

The United States and Great Britain entered into an accord some time ago to prevent excessive fluctuations in the exchange value of their currencies. Both countries, equipped with huge stabilization funds, have been buying Sterling when it seemed in danger of falling too low in terms of the dollar, and vice versa. But with the onslaught of this latest European crisis, the British Government felt compelled to husband her resources against war needs, and so word was passed along that the Pound would have to look out for itself.

Previously pegged at $4.68 (old par, $4.8665), it opened yesterday at $4.59, plummeted to $4.37, climb back up to $4.491/2 at the close of the hectic day. This mind you, to the money with which Englishmen buy their goods from all over the world, on the mere threat of war to British credit itself. And in spite of stabilization funds and tripartite agreements and the fabled British pluck and luck to win through.

And somehow, this demonstration of the transcendent power of great forces, involuntarily set in motion, over the puny might and plans of governments, fills us with foreboding at the fiscal condition of the United States. Indubitably its Government is over-extended. Its debt reaches a limit which Congress specified more in fun than in any apprehension that it would ever be approached. It is spending even in peace times far in excess of the revenue produced by high and multitudinous taxes.

And it has given its Administrators no pause whatsoever. In fact, they blithely "planned it that way," and have shown no sign of anxiety.

But the sun has been shining. They may rue their recklessness if the barometer falls and the war clouds roll up and begin to thunder.

The Comrades Have A Hard Time Explaining This One

The unhappy Bolshies all over the world are dreadfully embarrassed by the action of Comrade Stalin in making up to Mr. Hitler. The Right Wing Bolshies, anyhow. No doubt the Trotskyites are more cheerfully gloomy than ever before, because it perfectly bears out their dark predictions. But the boys who take their Stalinism straight are sweating copiously. Even so, the old never-say-die spirit is still in 'em and they are doing their manful best to put a good face on the transaction.

Thus there are the boys in Paris who for years have screamed that Russia was the only true friend of France, and that she alone can be trusted to save the world from Fascism. It is especially tough for these. Nevertheless, L'Humanite, their official organ, reports with a perfectly sober face its opinion that this is a masterful move for peace on the part of Moscow!

And our old friend, The Daily Worker, of New York, reports in its turn that the pact, undoubtedly means that "German Fascism has suffered a serious blow in its own country as well as in the world." And that "the people of Poland... in imminent danger from the threats of Fascist aggression and Chamberlain's appeasement schemes, now as before realize the firm position of the Soviet Union in uncompromising support for their freedom and independence."

It doesn't, to be sure, quite make sense under ordinary logic. But if you accept Bolshie logic, then it does. For the first postulate of that logic is that whatever emanates from Moscow, and only that, always represents the supreme good.