National Affairs: Adolf to Franklin

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Had some one reminded Franklin Roosevelt to put into his peace-offering message to Adolf Hitler last month some honest acknowledgment of the faults of the Versailles Treaty, Herr Hitler's reply to Mr. Roosevelt last week (see p. 18) might have been much shorter, less sarcastic. The President's omission gave Herr Hitler a fine opening to shoot over the Roosevelt shoulder at Woodrow Wilson, and students of debate could but admire the adroitness with which he seized this opening. Herr Hitler has never been noted for humor. To some unsung ghostwriter, perhaps, was due an Iron Cross for supplying cracks that made even non-Nazis smile wryly and which put Debater Hitler at least level with Debater Roosevelt in man-to-man repartee.

Roosevelt: Millions of people now fear war.

Hitler: "This fear . . . has undoubtedly existed among mankind from time immemorial. . . . For instance, after the peace treaty of Versailles 14 wars were waged between 1919 and 1938 alone, in none of which Germany was concerned. . . .

"The reason for this fear lies simply and solely in an unbridled agitation on the part of the press . . . which in the end goes so far that interventions from another planet are believed possible and cause scenes of desperate alarm."†

R. Major wars leave scars for generations.

H. "No one knows this better than the German people. For the peace treaty of Versailles imposed burdens . . . which could not have been paid off even in a hundred years, although it has been proved precisely by American teachers of constitutional law, historians and professors of history that Germany was no more to blame for the outbreak of the war than any other nation."

R. Leaders of great nations should preserve their peoples from disaster.

H. Then it is a "punishable neglect" for leaders not to control war-agitating newspapers, and disturbing to recall ambassadors "without any reason."

R. Three nations in Europe, one in Africa have been exterminated.

H. "A historical error." The European ones (Austria, Czecho-Slovakia, Albania) were made in 1918 into nations "which they never wished to be and never were." As for Ethiopia, what about the Moroccans, Berbers, Arabs, Negroes?

R. Self-evident home defense is the only excuse for war.

H. What about the U. S. in the World War? "Let us hope . . . the United States will in the future ... not go to war . . . except in the case of unquestionable home defense."

R. All international problems can be solved at the council table.

H. Theoretically, perhaps. "My skepticism, however, is based on the fact that it was America herself who gave sharpest expression to her mistrust in the effectiveness of conferences. For the greatest conference of all time was without any doubt the League of Nations.

"The freedom of North America was not achieved at the conference table any more than the conflict between the North and the South was decided there. . . .

"I mention all this only in order to show that your view, Mr. Roosevelt, although undoubtedly deserving of all honor, finds no confirmation in the history either of your own country or of the rest of the world."

R. Let Germany lay down her arms before conferring.