Books of the Day
Europe on the Eve of War
I Loved Germany. By Evelyn Wrench. (Michael Joseph. I2S. 6d.)
SIR EVELYN WRENCH used to love Germany, and when she has purged herself of the Nazi virus he will love her again. His robust faith in humanity and his unquenchable delight in the society of his fellow-men dispose him to seek and to find the best in everybody and everything. He has known the German people since boyhood, has admired their great qualities, has sympathised with their sufferings. He pays a well-deserved tribute to the statesmen of the Weimar era, who made a gallant attempt under the most discouraging circumstances to create and sustain a democratic republic living in harmony with its neighbours. He finds something to praise in the social programme of the Nazis, such as the cult of fitness, the Kraft durch Freude plan of assisted holidays, and the attempts to break down class barriers. But such benefits were a thousand times outweighed by the crimes of a cruel, intolerant and aggressive dictatorship. " Even in the Great War I understood what Germany was feeling, and it was not till the Nazi regime came into power and I witnessed the first organised Jew-baiting in Berlin in the spring of 1933, that something went snap in me." The old saying that every country has the government it deserves is a libel on the common man. No community deserves such a government as the totalitarian tyranny which holds eighty million Germans in its grip, and has estranged their best friends, Sir Evelyn among them, all over the world.
Frequent visits and numberless contacts enabled him to keep his finger on the national pulse. Everywhere he found hatred of the Versailles system with its prohibitions and differentia- tions. " Practically only one theme was discussed—the burn- ing question of amour-propre. Why should there be one law for countries like France and Poland, which were permitted to arm without restriction of any kind, and another law for Germany? " No less universal was the demand that Danzig must be returned to the Reioh. " To most Germans it was as sacred a cause as was the return of Alsace-Lorraine to France before 1914. I was frequently told that once Germany's equality of status had been recognised this was the first problem she would raise." Hitler had strong cards in his hand, and he played them with astonishing skill. Apart from the question of the Jews, on which Sir Evelyn fully shared the opinion of the civilised world, he seems to have taken a more hopeful view of the Nazi movement in its earlier stages than many of his readers, and he credited Hitler with pacific intentions at a time when, as we know from his conversations with Dr. Rauschning, he was bursting with plans for turning Europe upside down. Not until the rape of Bohemia and Moravia in March, 1939, did our author fully realise that we were confronted with a human volcano. When a new dictator strides across the stage we should do well to bear in mind the celebrated aphorism of Lord Acton: " All power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." There is an imminent tendency in the system of dictatorship to seek adventures abroad after the ruler has subjected his countrymen to his will. That Ataturk resisted the temptation suggests that he was the wisest of the autocrats thrown up by the World War.
The second part of the volume describes Italy, Germany, Russia, Poland, Sweden and Denmark during the summer of 1939. Sir Evelyn had visited Mussolini in 1933, and was impressed, but not overwhelmed. "He seemed a mixture of Napoleon, Cecil Rhodes and Northcliffe, a reincarnated Roman Emperor. He had tremendous drive, he was utterly devoted to Italy and Rome, he wanted peace." Alas! in this same year, 1933, he decided to launch an attack on Abyssinia in 1935, as Marshal de Bono has revealed. Revisiting the country last summer, our author found the Italian people as friendly as ever, constantly reiterating their desire not to be dragged into a war against Britain and France. On the other hand, the local riemberc of the Fascist Party were not too friendly, and the Press, which took its orders from the Govern- ment, was definitely hostile. " We had not expected to find such a systemitic campaign of vituperation as was being, waged against the British Empire. It was very depressing." Russia was far worse, and he does not mince his words. " The memory of my stay in Moscow is still a nightmare. . . . The Soviet system seemed to me the negation of everything that makes life worth while." After the darkness of Moscow, Warsaw was a city of light. " Happy Poland " is the title of the chapter which describes the gifted and civilised people which is now being trampled underfoot. Yet he could not enjoy his visit, partly because the European situation was so tense, partly because the Poles were obviously under-estimating their foe. " They seemed to attach great importance to their mounted infantry, undoubtedly among the best in Europe ; but as I watched these fine-looking men on their sturdy little horses I could not help wondering what kind of treatment would be meted out to them by the mechanised German army." In earlier years he had sympathised with German feelings about Danzig. Now, when we were dealing with a ruthless and unscrupulous Government that was taking law into its own hands, he no longer felt it possible to redress German grievances. " There was nothing for it but to support the Poles. Frederick the Great's saying, ' He who holds Danzig controls Poland,' was constantly in my mind." Den- mark and Sweden did little to raise the traveller's spirits, for their overmastering desire seemed to be to keep out of the coming conflict.
The most interesting chapters in a book which holds our attention throughout are devoted to Germany in July, 1939, and they are not pleasant reading. " We were in an unfriendly Germany, a Germany we had never known. . . . The Nazi regime was evidently working up its youthful followers into a state of fury against Britain, the arch-enemy . . . Nowhere except in Russia have felt so despondent as in Berlin in July . . . The sense of being in the shadow of a regime intolerant and ruthless was much worse than anything I could have conceived." Perhaps the most distressing feature was that in his view the Government possessed the overwhelming support of the younger generation, and that, since the dispute with the Western Powers was skilfully presented as a defence of the Reich's claim to Danzig, Hitler could mobilise certainly three-quarters of the nation behind his policy. This does not mean that they would stick to him if things went awry. In addition to the whole-hearted supporters and opponents of the regime there is a central mass which accepts the Government only so long as it is successful. The average citizen, intent on his daily task, adjusts his views without much difficulty when the collapse occurs and the wind blows from another quarter. A study of French opinion after the fall of the first and second Napoleonic Etripires is decidedly reassuring. To identify the whole people with the existing regime is not only unjust to the minority, if minority it be, but to deprive us of all hope of better times. Sir Evelyn's temperamental optimism reasserts itself at the end of his pilgrimage. " After an Allied victory I believe that a just treatment of the German race can succeed in bringing Germany back into the European family, if we are whole-hearted in our desire to create a new Europe." That he will take an active part in this formidable enterprise no reader of his writings can doubt.
G. P. GOOCH.
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