Roosevelt and Hitler
NO one in the world could have obliterated President Roosevelt except Reichskanzler Hitler. And no one, it may safely be asserted, was- ever readier to be so obliterated than Mr. Roosevelt himself_ Obliterated is, of course, in reality too strong a word to use. It is true that on Wednesday all the world was talking of the American President and on Thursday it was the German Chancellor who filled the stage. But the two speeches were complementary. Mr. Roosevelt's was the appeal, Herr Hitler's the response. Mr. Roosevelt held out a hand to Germany in the name of the world, at the same time as he held out the hand of America to the world, and Herr Hitler did not hesitate to grasp it. Mr. Roosevelt proposed the adoption of the English disarmament plan ; Herr Hitler accepted the English plan as " a possible basis." Mr. Roosevelt proposed an agreement on the time and procedure for the subse- quent steps ; Herr Hitler accepted a period of five years for the attainment of equality for Germany- s by no means unreasonable stipulation. President Roose- velt proposed that meanwhile no nation should increase its existing armaments.; Herr Hitler declared Germany was ready to destroy all the armaments she possessed if other countries would ,do the same. Mr. Roosevelt proposed that all nations should individually agree to send no armed force of whatever nature across their frontiers ; Herr Hitler said Germany was ready to sign. any non-aggressive pact. Strophe and antistrophe are not perfect, but they go far enough to be immensely encouraging.
The fundamental fact about Herr Hitler's speech is that every word of it might have been uttered by Stresemann or Muller or Bruning. It was a speech voicing Germany's reasonable claims in almost un- exceptionably reasonable language. It is a speech which, if Germany lives up to it, will go far towards wiping out the impression created by such outbursts as that of Herr von Papen on Saturday, by the provoca- tive extravagances of men like Captain Goering and Dr. Goebbels, by much that Herr Hitler himself has put on record in his now celebrated volume Mein Kampf. It is the speech of a new Hitler. Germans may tell us that we can see now how gravely we have misunder- stood them. That is not so. What Herr Hitler says. now may supersede much that has been said and written in the last two months, but it cannot unwrite it or unsay it. The mordant cartoon from the pencil of Herr Raemaekers on a later page of this issue embodies a profound truth. The war spirit has been continuously and disastrously fostered in Germany since the elections of February. Nothing that was said in these columns, last week about the inevitable effects of inculcating blind worship of the State calls for either apology 9r withdrawal. The black stain of the suppression of liberty remains. But it is enough to recall here the closing sentence of the article under reference : " With a Germany whose gospel embraces freedom for the in.- dividual and co-operation with States outside her, the world will never be reluctant to clasp hands." We still await the voice of a new Hitler on the subject of freedom for the individual, but in the matter of international co-operation the Chancellor has at least made it possible to continue discussion with his country again.
The question will no doubt be asked whether the speech was sincere. That remains to be proved. Such a, statement as that Germany is prepared to agree to a period of five years for the- disarmament of other court. tries, if at the end of that time real equality call he guaranteed to Germany, is made officially by the con- stitutional representative of the German people--for it must not be forgotten that Herr Hitler-is that, despite the prominence unconstitutional methods have assumed in his regime. That in itself simplifies the task at Geneva substantially. So does the acceptance of the gradual conversion of the Reichswehr to a standardized short- service system. Such declarations cannot be made by such a speaker in such circumstances and left void. Herr Hitler may rightly claim to be taken at his word, and no one will be under temptation to adopt any other attitude towards him. His speech, of course, included an attack ou the Treaty of Versailles, couched, it may be remarked, in much more moderate language than Mr. Lloyd George employed on the same subject on Tuesday, and contained references, to which no exception can be taken, to positive revision. Nothing of that impairs in. any way the value of the utterance as the proclamation of a policy of co-operation by Germany. We have said that the speech might have been made by Stresemann or Bruning. That is true. But there is this fundamental difference, that while neither of them could have carried more than half Germany with them, Herr Hitler can in this matter carry the whole of it. He speaks as a man who can make his words good.
And now what will follow ? No swift and triumphant achievement at Geneva. That would be too much to hope for. Even with goodwill everywhere, a Dis- armament Convention that will do reasonable justice to all concerned is enormously difficult to frame.. But at least we can believe it wilt now be framed. Insuper- able obstacles have been removed. Mr. Roosevelt's demonstration of America's fixed resolve to keep herself identified with the rest of a world with which her fortunes are inextricably bound up makes powerfully for confidence and stability,, and it seems at least possible that as the. American President opened the way for Herr Hitler, so, after Herr Hitler's speech, Mi. Roosevelt may be able to go farther than he has done yet in the matter of America's readiness to consult with other nations in the event of a breach of the Kellogg Pact, and even perhaps in defining his country's attitude towards a convicted aggressor. Declarations. on those lines would substantially ease the task of the Dis- armament Conference by giving new assurances to countries concerned — intelligibly enough — for their security. But with or without such assurances the Washington message and the Berlin speech constitute a challenge to the world. Mr. Roosevelt 'demands the abandonment of all aggressive weapons.. It is idle, as Lord Cecil demonstrates in an article on another page, to contend that that admits of the retention of 16-ton tanks and military aeroplanes, both, of which figure in the British plan. And when Herr Hitler consents to accept. inequality for Germany for five years more— assuming that by this. all idea of German rearmament is ruled out—he lays a moral duty on the rest of the world to go the furthest lengths possible in the immediate reduction of the inequality as earnest of' good faith. An immense responsibility is laid on the French, and little less on ourselves. In essentials Mr. Roosevelt and Herr- Hitler are at, one. rn their unity and the basis of it there is new hope for a stricken, world. And who murders hope in the world as, it is today literally murders flesh and blood,
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