Stop Hitler

The "Stop Hitler" movement initiated by Great Britain after the seizure of Czecho-Slovakia petered out ignominiously last week. Adolf Hitler was not likely to be stopped so far as Britain and France were concerned. British (and, for that matter, French) prestige fell to new lows on the Continent.

Britain had planned a pious milk-&-water declaration against further aggression. But the nations on Adolf Hitler's list of probable victims wanted a hard-&-fast promise of military help. Moreover, The Netherlands and Switzerland, remembering that France had once sworn to defend Czecho-Slovakia and that both France and England had talked about guaranteeing dismembered Czecho-Slovakia's frontiers, let it be known that they are not interested in French and British guarantees at all. Rumania's pistol-point signature to an economic alliance with Germany showed what that country thought of the "Stop Hitler" campaign.

The signatures which the British Government was especially anxious to obtain for the "Stop Hitler" declaration were those of Poland, Russia and France. Count Edward Raczynski, the Polish Ambassador to the Court of St. James's, soon told British Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax that such a toothless declaration was meaningless, would only anger Herr Hitler. He suggested that Britain initiate conscription and sign a military alliance.*

Soviet Russia was flattered and amused that Britain was courting her. Soviet Ambassador Ivan Maisky even had lunch at the London house of Lady Astor, hostess of the famed appeasement-favoring Cliveden Set. But Russia let it be known that since Russia and Germany have no common borders, the Soviet signature was useless without Poland's, and suggested an anti-Nazi conference. This was apparently too near to definite action for the ever-cautious British. The realistic French Quai d'Orsay looked upon the proposed British declaration as a typical instance of Anglo-Saxon diplomatic piety. French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet did, however, use the State visit last week of President and Mme Albert Lebrun ("Mr. and Mrs. Brown" to Londoners) as a fit occasion to talk matters over with British statesmen. M. le President and His Majesty King George VI also toasted each other's peoples heartily at a banquet at Buckingham Palace.

Promptings. Despite the fact that Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain has publicly buried his own appease-the-dictators policy, it was evident last week that such an old habit would die hard. Correspondents even suggested that the Cabinet's Stop Hitler campaign was welded more by the white-heat of public indignation than by any new warmth for a showdown by the Government. Mr. Chamberlain admitted, however, that the present was no moment for him to go flying to see Fuehrer Hitler again as he did last September.

The Cabinet itself was split by the issue. Lord Halifax, Minister of Health Walter Elliot, President of the Board of Education Earl De La Warr and Oliver Stanley, President of the Board of Trade, were for no more appeasement. But Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir John Simon and Home Secretary Sir Samuel Hoare, the two most influential Cabinet members outside of Mr. Chamberlain, were in favor of taking it easy and doing nothing. Sir John's appeasement of aggressors began in 1932 when, as Foreign Secretary, he virtually welcomed Japan's invasion of Manchuria--much to the chagrin of the U. S. Secretary of State, Henry L. Stimson. Sir Samuel's big try at appeasement came in 1935, when with French Premier Pierre Laval, he arranged a deal to give Benito Mussolini a big chunk of Ethiopia. He had to resign because of public indignation, but soon found another Cabinet job. That the Prime Minister's indignation at Adolf Hitler may be only temporary was hinted at last week when Mr. Chamberlain took pains to assure Germany that Britain would not interfere with her "reasonable efforts . . . to expand her export trade."

With the Cabinet split on a fundamental issue, with more newspapers than ever striking out against the Government, with more M. P.s than ever distrustful of British official policy, there were also more rumors than ever of a change in the Government itself. Former Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden still talked of a national Cabinet. Mr. Chamberlain was represented as wanting to have a Laborite in the Government, but the Labor Party wanted no part of the Prime Minister.

* One principal effect in Britain of Herr Hitler's latest aggressions has been to bring the ticklish issue of conscription to the fore. Whereas formerly few politicians would touch the subject with a ten-foot pole, last week it was discussed openly. Another Hitler coup and the last conscription-free nation (except Liechtenstein and Monaco) in Europe may go in for compulsory universal military training.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.