Mcallen Daily Monitor

BLAMING HITLER

From the standpoint of personal vanity Herr Hitler of Germany probably enjoys to the full his assumed appellation of President-Chancellor. But the position into which he has projected himself is not a happy one.

From childhood up he has been interested most in military affairs, and he is vastly unfamiliar with economic or financial matters. Hence there is a loss of confidence in him by the Junker agrarian interest in Germany, favored by the late von Hindenburg and which successfully prevented the Nazis from subdividing the landed estates among peasants. Also, Herr Hitler lost prestige by the June killings and the fiasco in Austria, and in an effort to redeem himself wherever he can he has appeared to have scrapped the Nazi policy of aggression and he and his ministers are advocating peace except, as he has announced, in the event that Germany must protect herself from invasion.

But few appear to believe the President-Chancellor's sincerity. Observers of European affairs now say that armament is definitely going forward, that the Geneva Arms Conference cannot be revived and that the Naval Limitation Conference set for 1935 will not get anywhere, even if called. Neither Japan, Britain nor France wants to renew the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and it is an open secret that a vast race for rearming among the nations of Europe has already begun. Even Acting-Premier Stanley Baldwin bluntly asserts that Britain's frontiers are no longer the chalk cliffs of Dover, but the Rhine.

Herr Hitler, the man with the comedian's mustache and the corporal's rating raised to President-Chancellor, stands in the midst of a powder magazine. With his combined titles he has also assumed absolute responsibility for many events. It will be easy to blame him if somebody else touches a match to the magazine and it goes off, so it behooves him to act with care and consideration both for the peace of Europe and the welfare of Germany.