Germany Over All

France fell, and as all men do in times of great disaster or triumph, each nation thought of its own. France's white-haired Marshal Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Jo seph Petain thought of "those who have been fighting, true to their old military tradition, against an enemy of huge numerical superiority; ... of those old combatants whom I commanded during the last war; ... of the men and women on the roads, driven away from their homes." Amid thunder's boom and the crackle of lightning that made radios rasp, Frenchmen heard him ask for peace.

In Berlin traffic stopped in midstreet.

Women kissed and cried. Strangers embraced. Radios played Dentschland uber Alles (Germany Over All) over & over, over & over repeated the news that Adolf Hitler had received, through Spain's Francisco Franco, Marshal Petain 's offer to surrender. But in the Champagne country of France, where the yellow dust raised by men and machines lay thick on the trampled vines, Germans and Frenchmen still slaughtered one another. Adolf Hitler ordered no armistice, Petain no unconditional surrender.

Second Munich. Less than 21 months ago Great Britain's Neville Chamberlain, France's Edouard Daladier, Italy's Benito Mussolini and Germany's Adolf Hitler met at Munich and signed away the integrity of Czecho-Slovakia. Since history turned on that 29th of September 1938, ten European nations have lost their independence. Proud and once dominant France was the eleventh to lie at the mercy of Europe's dictators, and history never recorded a supremer irony than Adolf Hitler's decision to settle the fate of France with Benito Mussolini at Munich.

Once more the dark round table in Munich's white marble Fiihrerhaus held four pairs of elbows -- but the other two belonged to Germany's Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Italy's Foreign Minister Count Galeazzo Ciano. Once more the world waited with bated breath for news of their decision -- but that decision meant far more than war or peace in the time of a septuagenarian. This week the men at the round table in Munich intended to settle Europe's destiny until times unforeseeable.

Nazi Philosopher Alfred Rosenberg gave a hint of what might be expected. "Paris was the centre of mental confusion that pervaded all Europe," wrote he. "This centre of unlimited agitation against the rebirth of the European nations ... is now firmly in the hands of National Socialist Germany. This means the disinfection of a source of illness that funda mentally was directed also against the Flemish-Franconian population. . . . The fall of Paris means the possibility of moral regeneration of the French people."

France, resigned to the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, Nice and Savoy, probably a part of Flanders and most of her colonial empire, hoped only that her people would be allowed to live as Frenchmen in the rest of their well-loved country. But suppose Hitler were generous at Munich? Munich was still Munich.

"We Shall Fight On." In London, Prime Minister Churchill paid a gallant tribute to "the gallant French people who have fallen into this terrible misfortune," disclosed that Britain had vainly proposed to France union into a single nation. As for England, said he: "We shall defend our island, and with the British Empire around us we shall fight on, unconquerable, until the curse of Hitler is lifted from the brows of men."

But, bravely as the Prime Minister spoke, Britain's disaster appeared as great as that of France, even though it were not yet complete. Surrender of the French Army of the Near East would leave the British impotent there. The end of fighting in France would release German air armadas to join the Italian air fleet in smashing British sea power in the Mediterranean.

Worst of all, if France gave up her Navy in return for a decent peace, Axis sea power would exceed Britain's.

At best, Britain must fight for her life in the Mediterranean, and singlehanded defend her island and dominions. At the worst, she would be bulldozed or beaten into surrendering or sinking her fleet, leaving the U. S. between a German-dominated Europe and a Japan-dominated Asia, each with a powerful fleet.

> In the East of Europe, France's defeat had been discounted a week before it took place. Russia moved with unaccustomed speed to safeguard her frontier against conquest-drunk Germany. Out of the safe she brought charges that Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia had formed a military alliance against her, promptly moved into one country after another. Half a million men and countless tanks took their places facing East Prussia. In any other week that would have been important news.

> Turkey abandoned all idea of going to the aid of her Allies, turned to Russia for guidance, pushed military preparations in expectation of Italian demands for Alexandretta.

> The Balkans hoped Germany. Italy and Russia would not fall out over the division of spoils. They had nothing left to save except bloodshed.

Throughout the world the certainties of many past generations were no longer certain, the values of many generations valueless. In the Near East former masters were impotent, new masters sweeping nearer. India might soon be cut off from all contact with the mother country she has worried for so long. Japan looked southward toward almost defenseless prizes (see below). Much of Africa was about to change hands; much of the rest was being fought over (see p. 25). South America shook with totalitarian scares (see p. 32). The U. S. was far from safe (see p. 14). As far as the sun courses, chaos or dread uncertainty reigned. The British Empire, bastion of things-as-they-have-been since the days of Queen Elizabeth and Shakespeare, stood tottering.

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