GERMANY AND EUROPE [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR]
SIR,—Reference to Mr. John Low's letter last week about Mr. Powys Greenwood's article in your issue of May t3th. If Hitler does not intend to rule other races, he certainly intends to displace them or as in the case of the Jews to exter- minate them (auszurotten v. Mein Kampf, p. 372).
The English edition of Mein Kampf is notoriously incomplete and misleading ; one can only conjecture that it was edited in Germany for British consumption. I would earnestly call the attention of your readers to a series of dispassionate, authori- tative pamphlets, based on scrupulous translation, published by the Friends of Europe, 122 St. Stephen's House, West- minster, S.W.t, at 3d. each. I have only just discovered them myself and find them invaluable. No. 38 examines Germany's Foreign Policy as stated in Mein Kampf, No. 49 analyses Alfred Rosenberg's "Future of German Foreign Policy."
There are numerous others equally enlightening.
No one with a care for the future of Europe and for Peace should ignore them.
Ewald Banse is Professor of Military Science in Germany, responsible for organising the teaching of the subject throughout the Reich, not only in military academies but in all the primary and secondary schools. The story of how an attempt was made to prevent the publication in English of his Raum und Volk (Space and People) is an illuminating comment on Ger- many's acute desire to keep the British public in the dark. Happily the intrigue was defeated, and Alan Harris's" Germany, Prepare for War ! is an excellent, unmutilated translation (Lovat Dickson, 5s.).
If Britain wakes up in time Europe may be saved and war averted. If our public remains too mentally inert to digest even the trustworthy information available in English, we shall deserve our fate. It will not be a pleasant one. Banse writes : "It gives us pleasure to meditate on the destruction that must sooner or later overtake this proud and seemingly invincible nation, and to think that this country, which was last conquered in 1066, will once more obey a foreign master, or at any rate have to resign its rich Colonial Empire."
I translate the following passages from the 1938 edition of Mein Kampf, which is a text-book throughout the Reich and of which 3,410,000 copies are in circulation :
"The acquisition of new soil to colonise has infinite advantages (p. 151) . . . [suitable soil for this purpose] is to be found almost only in Europe. It will not be freely granted us. Then the right of self-preservation comes into play ; what kindness refuses, the fist must simply take" (p. 152).
"The task, the mission, of the Nationalist Socialist Movement is to set before our people as its political goal not an intoxicating Alexander march, but the diligent labour of the German plough or which the sword has only to provide the land" (p. 743).
"The Nationalist Socialist Movement must seek to correct the discrepancy between the numbers of our population and the area of our country" (p. 732).
"State boundaries are set up by men and can be altered by men"
(P. 740).
"Today I am guided by the sober recognition of the fact that we cannot win back lost territories by the eloquence of polished parlia- mentary tongues (Mauler) but must conquer them by a well-sharpened sword, that is by bloody battle" (p. 710).
"Nature knows no political boundaries. . . . The strongest in courage and diligence is her favorite child to whom she promises the right to exist as master or the master's right to exist (das Herren- recht des Daseins)" (p. 147).
Similar quotations could be multiplied. Hitler laid his cards on the table in 1924-26; he is now playing them. Austria has been devoured. England remains still half-blind and half-deaf. May she awake fully while there is yet time.—
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