GERMAN DREAMS OF REVENGE.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—If the Swiss believe in a renewal of war by Germany, as one of your correspondents has lately informed us, is it not because an anti-British campaign, similar to that which preceded the War, has been carried on since the Armistice ? Besides a large number of works with a tendency to create anti-British feeling, such as Karl Meyer's history, the lectures given in Berlin University on the British Empire and now published as Lebensfragen des Britischen Weltreiches (it is
instructive to compare these with the fair-minded accounts by French colonial historians), and the travelling show " Das
gekettete Deutschland," with its addresses on Germany's
lost colonies, &c., there are such books as Far grosser Katastrophen ; Der deutsche Aufsteig and die Germanische
Zeit ; 1931: Deutsehlands Auferstehung ; Deutsehlands Einzige Rettung ; and Die drei Kommenden Kriege, which deal with a war against England for world-supremacy and have a large sale. Of books mainly concerned with a war of revenge against our Allies I have noticed one, 1935: the Destruction (Untergang) of France (published two years ago), but the general idea seems to be that this war is a necessary pre- liminary to that against England, as the British can be persuaded to stand by while France is destroyed, and will thus deprive themselves of an ally. The means of persuasion are indicated by several writers, and it is noteworthy that at least sixteen months ago the policy of forcing the French into the Ruhr was advocated as certain to lead to a breach between England and France ; the scheme could be worked by means of the coke deliveries to Lorraine, which depends on the Ruhr ; comparatively small deficiencies, carefully adjusted, would turn the scale between certainty and uncertainty for the steel trade. This, however, is a digression ; my purpose was to show the grounds on which the Swiss theory mentioned by your correspondent presumably rests. I had the opportunity of observing the results of German propaganda for several years, and this theory seems to me better founded than the current belief in French militarism, which appears to rest on such productions as the Frankfurter Zeitung's " Dariac " report. But perhaps Sir Graham Bower can give us a list of French works, with sales varying between 100,000 and 230,000, advocating war for world-supremacy and the " destruction " of neighbours. —I am, Sir, &c.,
c.o. Lloyds Bank, 222 Strand, W.C. 2.
W. LENGLEYS.
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