OCR Text |
Show Chamberlain as War Maker 1 . By JOHN T. FLYNN the very entrance to ths Mediter- ranean? The answer to this must bs that England haa not abandoned htr old plan of playing off the nations against each other. The confusion is In the failure to realise what nation England Is driving at. The casual observer believe! It is Germany England should be shooting at with her diplomatic armament, but this Is far from the fact. There is a great ferment going on in Europe now. It crosses national lines. t NEW YORK In ths range of economics no set of circumstances looms larger for the new year than events in Europe. What happened In those swift few days of Berchtesgsden, Godesberg and Munich now be-comea be-comea clear, though why it should not hava been clear all' along is worthy of wonder, aincs its meaning mean-ing was described for us several years ago by men who know Europe Eu-rope better than we do. The great mystery of tht present pres-ent European crisis to American observers is the behavior of England. England! primary interest for a century has been her immense and widely acattercd colonial empire. em-pire. Because her interests in ths matter of land wtrt everywhere but in Europe she made it perfectly per-fectly clear te European governments govern-ments that she had no ambition on the continent But while ahe had no territorial terri-torial ambitions there, she hsd very great Interest in preventing any controlling power from gaining gain-ing complete dominance. ' This was essential to the protection of her empire and her trade. Therefore she skillfully played off ons European nation against another and succeeded pretty well. Why the Change? But now Americana ask why England has apparently -abandoned this policy why shs permits per-mits Germany to expand In military mili-tary and territorial resources undeterred. Why does she permit France to throw away her southwestern south-western strength while Spain is abandoned to fascist forces upon France's other boundary and at Whether we like it or not, the realistic student of European affairs af-fairs mutt see that Europe's problem prob-lem will slowly divide upon a great economic Issue ths control of the economic system. Will it bs controlled by the communists or by ths fascists or by ths highly privileged aristocratic aristo-cratic ruling classes In ths various countries? For England tht question is: Will England'! hfe be subjected to an attack upon her ruling classes from any source? Struggle In the Future To thoss groups thert is but ons real enemy in Europe at least so the Chamberlains think. That enemy is Russia. Bad as Mussolini is, vile as Hitler Hit-ler seems to them, st least they fight ths sunt enemy. The one' great problem In Europe Eu-rope today is for England to isolate Russia, and If ws understand under-stand that it ie quite simple to sts how successful British diplomacy has been. Little by little the battlefield la being de-Limited. It 1s to be a battle between Russia Rus-sia and communism on one side . and Germany and fascism on ths other. Undoubtedly Italy will be In that But the stage Is being set, and this Is ths fact for a war that England csn keep out of and In' which Germany will b fighting the battle of Mr. Chamberlain's school of thought It will be time enough, thinks Mr. Chamberlain, to deal with Germany and Italy when both have exhausted themselves in thst titanic struggls. Copyright 1939, for Ths Telegram. |