11 APRIL 1941, Page 5

The , .veek of Germany's "barbaric invasion" of Yugoslavia s eems an

unfortunate moment for the appearance, in the April Conte,„parary, of an article on what the writer, Dr. William dliarbutt Dawson, calls justice, but most people would call in- ulgenc,, for the Axis after the war. Dr. Dawson, who accepted an honorary degree from the University of Konigsberg three its after the Nazis came into power, holds that three causes ,n7'e than any others are responsible for the present war, the uraconian penalties imposed on Germany in 1919, the failure the League to change the treaty conditions, and the failure of the Allies to disarm. He suggests that under the future peace-settlement "The opportunity should be taken for return- ing to the Negus of Abyssinia much of his territory" [my italics], but that in compensation Britain should cede to Italy "part or the whole" of British Somaliland. Belgium, pre- sumably as penalty for standing in Germany's path, is to hand over to that Power Eupen and Malmedy. Alsace-Lorraine is to vote on its own future. Poland, after being first blasted and then enslaved by Germany; is to have her part of Upper Silesia submitted to a plebiscite once more, and Danzig, is to go to Germany. Czechoslovakia is to lose the Sudeten areas and all Slovakia. Germany must, in consideration of all this, set up a constitutional system, and "it is incredible that, having once begun to tread the democratic way, however haltingly, the Germans will prove confirmed backsliders." There are many things in the world that I find incredible, but this particular one does not figure on the list.