MARGINAL COMMENT
By HAROLD NICOLSON 1 N the rush and glitter of these miraculous weeks, at a moment when victory is being affirmed over a hundred yards of snow- necked pavement and a thousand miles of sun-scorched sand, we are tempted to overlook the symptoms of confusion which read. us from the inner fortress of our enemies. For the first time since that grim morning of September 3rd, 1939, it is positively agreeable to listen to the enemy wireless, and to detect the undertone of per- plexity which, under all their exhortation, rustles like the autumn wind among the pines. The voice of Italy is shrill these days with a note of hysteria ; in the voice of Germany there is a note of angered resolve. The Italians (horrified as they have been by the lethal rush of the Genoese towards their shelters, terrified as they are by the impending menace to the Sicilian Channel), are seeking to arouse among their unwarlike populace the spirit which we ourselves acquired in 1940. The Germans, who in the desire to divert public attention from the discomfiture of the Russian campaign, had con- centrated immediate hope upon the capture of Egypt, are seeking to inspire comfort by stories of the bloodless occupation of Mar- seilles, by dwelling upon Rommel's amazing powers of extrication.
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To both peoples the prospect of victory had, by imprudent propa- ganda, been allowed to assume the form of an immediate pincer- movement from the Caucasus and the Suez Canal, which would result in the expulsion of Great Britain from the Mediterranean, and gigantic future campaigns in the Middle and Far East, culminat- ing in the junction of the Germans and the Japanese. Nor is this the only fantasy which has been shattered ; day by day and week by week the German and Italian people have been taught that sea- power has been broken by the submarine and the aeroplane ; it is with horror that they now observe that great armadas can be ferried across the oceans, it is with dismay that they ask themselves at what point upon their exposed sea-board the next thunderbolt is likely to fall. There is no cause on our part for premature jubila- tion ; as Lord Haig was wont to remark, "News is seldom either as good or as bad as it seams at first " ; it will not be easy in the least to capture Bizerta ; and the menaces of the submarine and the Luftwaffe are bound to prove increasingly serious. Yet although we have every ground for caution, they have little ground for delight.
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Perhaps the most significant symptom of this decline in certitude which, like some nervous affection, is twitching at the fibres of German will, is the changed note of Herr Hitler's own pronounce- ments. In his recent Bierhalle speech (a speech delivered before the defeat of Rommel) one missed the drums and cymbals of the old triumphal march ; for the first time the word "capitulation " formed itself upon his derisive lips. Seldom has the Fiffirer shrieked so lustily ; seldom has his message been so little "Sieg Heil! " In the admirable broadcasts transmitted to Germany from London the most regular speaker today is Adolf Hitler ; records of all his past speeches, of all his arrogant assertions and promises, have been carefully taken, indexed and filed ; hour by hour these speeches . are now being broadcast again to the German people. The voice of Hitler is seldom off the air ; and as they listen again (for they do listen) to that voice screaming at them out of the past, the Germans may well ask themselves whether the "nachtwiindlerische Sicherheit" of their leader has proved so certain after all. Even more curious are the two messages which Herr Hitler addressed to the Vichy Government and the French people at the moment when he occupied the unoccupied zone. Inevitably, in the rush of events, these two pronouncements have not received in this country the attention which they deserve. Yet they merit careful analysis. It is easy enough to dismiss them as examples of forensic hypocrisy. They contpin, it is true, many passages of slimy solicitation such as we are accustomed to find in Hitler's demagogic discourse. But they also contain certain observations of what he Would call a " geopolitical " order, and which are illustrative of his ignorant, but most imaginative, political dreams. The first of these documents is the letter which, on the eve of violating the Armistice, he addressed to Marshal Petain. In this letter he recalls how the declaration of war in September, 1939, " affected him deeply " (m'affligea profonclement"); how the armistice which he imposed upon a conquered France was moderate in the extreme, and was, in fact, not a dictated peace but a " truce " ; how it was his sincere desire that the " beautiful land of France" should not again become a theatre of hostilities ; and how, realising that " the reappearance of England and America upon the Continent of Europe might lead to the destruction of all European nations, and the annihilation of culture," he had decided to " defend the frontiers of culture and European civilisation." In his message to the French people of November rith Herr. Hitler adopted similar arguments. " In the Armistice," he said, " Germany asked for nothing incompatible with the honour of the French army." It is the fact, of course, that the comparative moderation of the Armistice terms was due to Hitler's conviction that Great Britain, 'within a few weeks, would also collapse. It is true that, had he fore- seen the stubbornness of our resistance, and the slow efficiency with which we could prepare ourselves for a counter-offensive, he would himself have occupied Marseilles and Toulon immediately, and have allowed Mussolini to take Corsica and Tunis. Yet it would be a mistake to 'dismiss as mere hypocrisy the whole theory disclosed in these two messages ; to do that would be to ignore some of the most important illusions which nest in Hitler's fantastic mind.
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There have recently appeared in Die Zeitung (that admirable German weekly now being published in London) two interesting articles by Peter Bratt upon the difference between "culture" and "Kultur." Had we, as a people, frilly understood this difference in the past, it might well have been that our relations with Germany would have been conducted with greater intelligence and more alert caution. For, whereas " culture " in the Western European sense is largely static and subjective, "Kultur," as understood by the Germans, is essentially objective and dynamic. For us " culture " has no political or even national implications, and is generally regarded as a rather luxurious habit of mind acquired by an in- tellectual minority. For the Germans, "Kultur" is the organised expression of national, or even nationalistic, energy. We get nearer to the distinction if we consider the difference in the meaning of the word "civilisation " as interpreted, on the one hand by Mr. Clive Bell, and on the other by a conscientious official in the Sudan Civil Service. When Hitler speaks of "European culture" he is thinking perfectly sincerely of a Europe controlled, planned, managed and educated upon a system of German "Kultur." It is reasonable to suppose that he did, in fact, delude himself with the theory that some marriage might be consummated between Germanic "Kultur" and the lovely culture of France ; and that he did, in fact, suppose, upon the analogy of "Graecia capta . . ." that some fusion could be achieved between French grace and Teutonic efficiency such as would enable him, as master of Europe, to live happy days as "Gott in Frankreich."
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In this, as in so much else, Herr Hitler is typical of the average German ; the rigidity with- which the Germans cling to their premises is as strange as the elasticity with which we abandon ours. The muddle which Germany has made of her new order is not only due to transport difficulties, or to the heroism of the men and women in the occupied territories ; it is also due to a false at sumption on the part of thz Germans that the benefits of " Kultur " are so self-evident that it can only be the guile of Britain which prevents Europe from accepting the new order with delighted acclaim. In dealing with older -civilisations the fingers of the Germans become thumbs ; it may well be that in their angered dis- appointment we shall now see the mailed fist emerging completely undisguised. Europe, before liberation comes, may well pass through an even more atrocious phase ; and Hell know no fury such as Hitler scorned. That in itself must cast a, cloud upon our jubilation.
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