| Show world looks forward to new year fearing democrat Demo democracy crac y dictator battle IL ra 0 11 L MUSSOLINI chamberlain ROOSEVELT HITLER will the headliners of 1938 continue to make headlines in europe and orient arm against possible war as totalitarian states press their advantage 0 e against weaker lands by JOSEPH W labine father time closes another volume in his checkered career and the world pauses to conjecture what will 1939 bring can civilization look forward to 12 months of comparative peace after the hectic year just drawing to a closed or will the trumpets of mars bleat louder than ever bringing this battle scarred globe even nearer to the long predicted general 7 9 will new heroes and villains appear to replace names already engraved on the horizon 7 or will men still read of hitler mussolini chiang kai shek deladier Da ladier roosevelt and chamberlains 9 from the puzzling maze 1 ot of 9 headlines blazing across the world at years end one safe prediction can be drawn the year 1939 will bring un economic warfare between totalitarian states and democracies forcing one nation aft er another into the ultimate political lineup from which they will rise or fall on one side the side of au thorit will stand germany italy and japan aggressively seek ing to extend their power to new frontiers on the other side will stand france the united kingdom and those western hemisphere na eions who will cast their lot with the united states to protect the new world from this new threat to se carity far east fears war already the die is being cast in the orient as nowhere else world powers are consolidating their po sitione and preparing for a show down that may come during the next 12 months great britain and the united states insulted because ja pan has discarded the nine power treaty guaranteeing china s open door have come out in the open with financial assistance to sorely pressed generalissimo chiang kai shek at the same time china is draw ing nearer an alliance with soviet russia japan s mortal enemy rec this threat admitting that conflict with the soviet must evenou ally come japan has hitched her belt and made increased armament appropriations to cope with the new and greater challenge to her domi nation over the far east will this potential dynamite keg explode in 1939 observers fear it might and no one dares predict the consequences russia s star may rise or fall in 1939 not only on the strength of her far eastern success or failure but for two other reasons first her 20 year program of commini cation has reached a critical point meager reports from moscow tell of industrial trouble famine and revolt providing an internal men ace that might prove disastrous if war breaks out germany looks to the ukraine second russia moves nearer con flicht with ambitious nazi germany one of the most important planks in chancellor adolf hitler s program is the creation of a ukrainian re public to be carved out of the vast expanse of southwestern russia and southeastern poland it is freely predicted that germany will open this campaign in the spring al ready her propaganda agents are working in the ukraine and daily programs in the ukrainian lan ian guage are broadcast from vienna hitler s intentions became clear when he refused to give hungary and poland a common border at the expense of czechoslovakia be cause he wanted to protect his path to the east through the lat ter state this is but one of hitler s ambi eions for 1939 the other is tion of memel on the east shore of the baltic sea from lithuania although der fuehrer promised at munich that he had no more tern terri tonal ambitions in europe a situa tion is being arranged very con leniently ly whereby the reich will be forced to annex the Nazi fied Mem elites whose land is conti ngu ous to east prussia another german ambition is dom mation of the balkans already such states as yugo slavia ruma ma bulgaria and hungary have fallen into the german sphere of in fluence and this program will be intensified in 1939 france may capitulate meanwhile at the other end of the rome berlin axis italy a pre mier benito mussolini looks for the new year to bring him new tern terri tones tories in the mediterranean though he has demanded that france give him tunisia corsica savoy and nice he is expected to settle for much less but france will un make some concessions in 1939 principally providing for joint french british italian control over the suez canal and giving ethiopia an outlet to the sea through djibouti this particular problem is expect ed to draw attention during january when england s prime minister ne ville chamberlain and foreign sec detary viscount halifax visit mus colim in rome france is great Brit britain ains s closest ally and since chamberlain has taken the lead in the 1938 program of appeasing dictators he is expected to arrange a settlement of the franco italian problem in spam spain where the civil war is now more than two years old a settlement is expected during 1939 loyalists who have lost ground steadily will probably capitulate to rebel generalissimo francisco franco not only does franco have the active support of germany and italy but also of the strong spanish royalist faction he has just re stored citizenship and properties taken from enking ex king alfonso and prince juan is expected one day to become a puppet monarch with franco as premier democracies on guard dictators cannot stand still and hitler and mussolini must either rise to new glories or fall in the estimation of their subjects that is why no sane european observer can predict a cessation of the diplo matic conflict now waging if great britain and france expected their appeasement policy to bring a per manent european peace out of the chaos of 1938 italy and germany are now showing there is no such thing as permanent appeasement therefore the democracies are now stiffening their attitudes many are the commentators who predict general european conflict early in 1939 sir oswald pirow de bense minister for the union of south africa made such a statement after completing a discouraging tour of continental capitals meanwhile the western hemisphere cannot ignore the threat of totalitarian propaganda at the pan american conference in lima peru the united states joined with other new world nations in a program to keep italy germany and japan in check how well the plan will succeed is problematical since it is based on nothing more concrete than well intentioned resolutions but the united states has apparent ly convinced those south american nations who fear dollar imperial ism that uncle sam has good in tensions tent ions trade battle predicted this is the background for 1939 s battle of democracy versus ta ism the battle itself will probably be an international trade war since nazi fascist states depend on foreign trade to expand their political domination but as germany s export import activity grows greater so does that of the united kingdom whose reciprocal trade treaty with the united states goes into effect this year from behind the scenes in every nation will come the clatter of steel against steel as men forge the weapons of defense and aggression bat tie tle ships tanks airplanes and can non never since the world war have armament appropriations been so large not the least of these is our own united states which may embark on a military naval pro gram plus industrial mobilization providing congress provides the cash so there is a rumbling of cas and a raucous babble of kropa ganda to mingle with this season s new year s celebration will war emerge or will common sense again prevail only the infant 1939 can tell and he s too young to speak 0 western newspaper union |
