The Ruses of Peace
It seems to me a good thing that Germany is not going to rearm from under the counter. I have been reading the tran- script of the Nuremberg Trials and such documents as were admitted in evidence and had a bearing on Hitler's earlier aggressions. Almost all the oral and the written evidence is permeated by the habit of deceit; honour—a concept frequently Invoked by the military defendants—flickers with a pale and unconvincing lustre, like a candle carried by some belated rescuer to the lawn of a mansion which has been burning all night. Part of this habit of deceit (a trait whose appearance in children parents instinctively worry about more than any other failing) stemmed in the case of Germany from the character of Hitler, to whom fraud in one form or another was second nature; but part, too, was a legacy of the shifts and subterfuges to which the post-Versailles German Navy, Army and Air Force owed their being. All three services had their roots in deceit. In the long run nothing can prevent the emergence of the German nation' as a military power; since this is so, it seems to me better to light a candle under the charred and dubious trophies in the hall than to wait till the Occupants start smuggling paraffin down to the cellars.
Previous page
