Quintuple Dynamite

The decision of the German Govern-ment shakes the foundations of diplomacy. . . . This is a day of the gravest seriousness but also a day of satisfaction jor every German. --Berliner Tageblatt The die has been cast. By an act of genius Reichskanzler Hitler, simultaneously withdrawing Germany from the League and summoning the German people to a grandiose manifestation of Peace, leads us out of insecurity and uncertainty. --Berlin Stock Exchange Gazette As if freed from a nightmare, Germany is taking a deep breath of relief. --Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung The League of Nations rocked. The Disarmament Conference shriveled. Speeding to the French War Ministry, square-shouldered, homespun Premier Edouard Daladier remained closeted in anxious conference for hours. Caught by the news from Berlin at Chequers, the Prime Minister's week-end residence, James Ramsay MacDonald, snowy-crested idealist, ordered the British Foreign Office to make no official comment. Their Majesties were told at Sandringham, shortly after lunch. In Rome, Premier Benito Mussolini, uneasily aware that he might be suspected of having egged Chancellor Hitler on because of the close relations between the two Fascist regimes, hastily told the world through his Press spokesman of "Italy's complete surprise." At Geneva the German delegates to both the League Council and the Disarmament Conference popped into sleeping cars for Berlin. At that day's meeting, Council President Senor Amador of Panama had, third on his right, the empty chair of Germany, and, third on his left, the empty chair of Japan--whose stogie-smoking Chief Delegate Yosuke Matsuoka walked out when the League tried to check Japan's land grab in Manchukuo (TIME, March 6). A negro statesman, Louis Arthur Grimes, Secretary of State for Liberia, addressed the Council on "the unsophisticated African." In Tokyo cocky little Japanese War Minister Sadao Araki, quick to realize that Germany on the loose would give Russia something more to think about, crowed: "Germany's withdrawal from the League is further evidence of the League's unworthiness to exist!" In Washington earnestly pacific Secretary of State Cordell Hull told correspondents that, without giving up hope, he "shuddered to contemplate" the situation created by Germany's withdrawal from the Disarmament Conference. Hitler & Hindenburg. To the German people, cut off from world public opinion by Nazi control of their Press, radio and public expression of every sort, Chancellor Hitler presented with consummate showmanship last week the spectacle of himself and President Paul von Hindenburg standing shoulder to shoulder in a great, resurgent effort to enable the Fatherland to shake off the shackles of the Treaty of Versailles. Evidence of these "shackles"--and it was quite enough for Showman Hitler-- was the quiet insistence in recent weeks by the U. S., Britain and France that the Disarmament Conference could only proceed on the basis of no immediate rearmament for Germany, a European armament standstill for four years and eventual equalization of armaments between Germany and such other European great powers as France. Fortnight ago Chancellor Hitler served notice through his Charge d'Affaires in London, Prince Otto von Bismarck, grandson of the "Iron Chancellor," that Germany would not wait until 1938 to achieve arms equality with France (TIME, Oct. 16). Last week in Geneva at a session of the Disarmament Conference Bureau, the definite stand of the U. S., Britain and France was reaffirmed by British Foreign Secretary Sir John Simon, seconded by U. S. Ambassador-at-Large Norman Davis. Emphasizing that the object was not to keep Germany permanently "enchained," Sir John set 1942 as the tentative year in which Germany might expect to reach armed equality with France, but he barred absolutely immediate German rearmament. No sooner did Sir John's speech reach Berlin than Chancellor Hitler, who had known its purport and conferred during the past 24 hours with President von Hindenburg, Defense Minister General von Blomberg, Foreign Minister Baron von Neurath and his Nazi lieutenants, promptly touched off five sticks of dynamite, two foreign and three domestic. He announced German withdrawal from the League--which under the League Covenant cannot become effective for two years. He recalled the German delegation from the Disarmament Conference. He persuaded President von Hindenburg to dissolve the German Reichstag and the 17 diets of the German States. Finally he announced that when the German people vote to elect a new Reichstag on Nov. 12 they will also vote "Yes" or "No" whether they approve the Hitler Government's policy "and solemnly do endorse it."

"Only with Honorable Men!" To explain and justify his policy Chancellor Hitler spoke to "my German people!" as he called them, for 40 minutes by radio. In 1914, he declared, Germans were "unjustly attacked." After the War they "destroyed their weapons . . . with really fanatical fidelity" to the Treaty of Versailles, only to discover later that its purpose is to "create an everlasting state of inequality . . . filling one side with understandable haughtiness and the other with bitter wrath."

Digressing, the Chancellor cried that his Nazi Party has not only "snatched Germany back from the brink ... of Red insurrection," but also by so doing "rendered an historical service to the rest of Europe." Therefore the German people and the Nazis in particular have deserved well of Europe and yet, modestly, "the German people and the German Government have demanded, not weapons at all but equality. ... In this demand by Germany there cannot possibly be any threat to the rest of the powers, for the defensive armament of other peoples is constructed to ward off the heaviest weapons of attack; while Germany demands no weapons of attack, but only those defensive arms which in the future are not to be forbidden, but permitted to all nations."

Declaring that Germany can deal "only with honorable men, not with those of doubtful integrity" Chancellor Hitler lumped into the latter class "the string of great powers that ... are not thinking of equality for Germany. . . .

"To give this [Germany's] claim [to equality] documentary form," he continued in ringing tones, "I decided to beg the Reich President to dissolve the Reichstag and give the German people opportunity for making an historic affirmation. . . . May the world, from such an affirmation, gain the conviction that the German people, in this battle for equality and honor, declare itself completely at one with the Government!" "Glory Bedecked Opponents." Cannily the Chancellor, who knows that Germany is in no condition to withstand a preventive war launched from France today, hailed in his speech "the French soldier, our old glory-bedecked opponent!" "I, together with all my followers, de-cline." he cried, "to conquer the people of a strange nation--who would not love us anyway. . . . "German youth is marching . . . not to demonstrate against France, but to evince that political determination . . . necessary for throwing down Communism!" Significance. From a domestic standpoint President von Hindenburg's dissolution of the Diets of all the German States was of immense importance, for the Government coolly indicated that no elections for new Diets will be held. Thus local parliamentary Government was abolished throughout Germany at one stroke last week, and the Nazi Party crushed the last fragments of opposition. In the Reichstag election on Nov. 12 only Nazi candidates will be permitted to run, according to the Government's announcement. This system of presenting the electorate with only one slate consisting entirely of Government-picked candidates, Benito Mussolini introduced into Italy five years ago (TIME, Nov. 26, 1928). Inevitably the Hitler Government must win--100%. Characteristically Chancellor Hitler did not threaten last week to re-arm in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler's technique of assault, highly developed during his struggle for power in Germany, consists in alternate hammer blows and conciliatory gestures. This method kept his German political foes in turmoil, helped to paralyze their resistance until the Nazis were able at last to smash, dissolve and confiscate the property and funds of all rival German parties. Last week, trying out his technique on France, Chancellor Hitler let it be known that the "real purpose" of his speech was to offer Premier Daladier of France an opportunity to settle all outstanding ques-tions between the two nations by direct negotiation outside the framework of either the Disarmament Conference or the League! To former U. S. Minister to China Charles R. Crane who happened to be leaving Berlin for Paris, the Chancellor cried: "It is my sincere desire to have a friendly understanding with France. Germany wants Peace!" Said Mr. Crane, on reaching Paris, "With all the dynamic force for which he is famous, Hitler literally burst out with this assertion. I had not asked him about his attitude toward France. . . . Hitler's gestures and pointblank statements remind me of Theodore Roosevelt." While French editors voiced confidence that Premier Daladier would not walk into the "Hitler trap" of separate negotiation with Germany--a step sure to estrange from France her "Little Entente" allies (Czechoslovakia. Jugoslavia, Rumania) and Poland--shaggy, excitable French Foreign Minister Joseph Paul-Boncour struggled at Geneva to keep the Disarmament Conference alive, stanchly aided by U. S. Ambassador Davis. On direct instructions from Premier Mussolini, who was more than ever impatient of dawdling Geneva diplomacy last week, Italy's delegates tried to kill the Conference by urging adjournment sine die. Sir John Simon, after telephoning Prime Minister MacDonald, seemed at first to agree with the Italians but after sharp debate Mr. Davis and M. Paul Boncour won their points. Conference President Arthur Henderson was authorized to send Germany a stiff note scoring her reasons for withdrawal as "invalid." It was decided to resume Conference work, after a brief recess, on Oct. 26.

With Prime Minister MacDonald and President Roosevelt both keeping mum, Europe was startled by rumors from Berlin that President von Hindenburg will re-sign after the German election of Nov. 12, to be succeeded by Adolf Hitler as unconditional Head of the State.

To quell any possible fears that he was letting the U. S. get caught in a European quarrel. President Roosevelt spoke through Ambassador Davis: "The principles set forth last May by the President in his message [concerning Disarmament] to the heads of state remain the policy of the United States. . . . We are not, however, interested in the political elements of any purely European aspect of the picture."

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