SIR,—The paramount duty of the United Nations to the world
and to future generations is not merely to destroy the German fighting machine . but to frustrate effectively the ensuing underground movement, already reliably reported to be in process of formation, to resurrect it. The newest developments in scientific warfare alone render this task ex- ceedingly formidable, but an even more formidable obstacle consists in the spiritual and intellectual corruption of the present generation of Germans for whom truth in any matter affecting their past achieve- ments and treatment of other peoples in the absolute sense simply does not exist. Having been driven out of one continent, having sustained one major defeat after another during the past eighteen months, having seen almost everything come to pass which their chosen champions have sworn to be impossible and now having at their head a discredited gambler in human lives whose former eloquence has dwindled to an occasional mumble and gibber, not one of them, judging from prisoners' statements, as yet sees this war as an odious crime against humanity but rather as a magnificent and resplendent enterprise which through a little miscalculation on someone's part somehow went wrong.
Complete military victory for the Allies is certain, but it is by no means certain that Germany itself will emerge from the war a ravaged, seared and scarred battle-field. Short of such an event, and indeed perhaps with it, I believe that so long as there is a Germany there will always be a "next time," and that there is as a matter of sober fact only one workable, practical and effective way of dealing with Germany —and that is abolishing it. What benefits has the union of all Germans within one sovereign Reich brought to civilised mankind. that its con- tinued existence should be deemed by any sane person to be a sine qua non of a wise and statesmanlike peace? I submit that that is a question which those who think that harshness toward Germany is necessarily the outcome of unworthy vindictiveness and hatred should squarely answer. A united Germany thus far has meant one thing only: a menace to the unity of her peace-seeking neighbours, as indeed was only to be expected when the unifying printiple consisted in loyalty to a military caste predominating over all other political ideals or national ties. The German nation, in other words, is and always has been, mainly a military organisation, whether disguised or overt.
Which would the German people prefer, if protected sufficiently long from the machinations of an underground Gestapo to make a free choice: to remain for generations under a stigma and moral if not actual boycott the Islunaelites of Europe, a people not only defeated but disgraced, or that each should have the. power to opt for self-respecting and useful citizenship of a neighbouring state, provided he or she does not prefer- to emigrate to some distant under-populated part of the globe where their past antecedents would not be too closely scrutinised? It must be remembered that the German people are dangerous as petrol or other inflammable material is dangerous ; they did not begin brooding over the "harsh injustices of the Versailles treaty" until Nazi firebrands had got to work, but so long as they
remain a self-governing entity a successor to Bernhardi, Treitschke and Hitler will inevitably appear. There is indeed only one way in which such a people can be punished—by rewarding them. There is only one way in which the problem of "what to do with the Germans" can be satisfactorily solved, and that is by making them, through denational isation, into something better than Germans. Having nothing but record of disaster and a tradition of ignominy to look back on,
is every reason to expect them to be stolidly resigned to, even if they do not actively welcome, such a fate. German capacity for distortion and self-delusion are, in fact, so truly staggering and immense that no less drastic expedient will serve.—Yours, &c., GEORGE VIC.HARDS.
Blenheim, Mount Pleasant Road, Poole.
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