ARABS IN PALESTINE GREET WAR THREAT (9/11/38)

They believe that Britain, in order to gain the sympathy of the Arabs and Moslems in the Near and Middle East will give up the entire policy of a Jewish national home in Palestine and grant the Arabs their national demands. These include complete stoppage of Jewish immigration, prohibition of the sale of land to Jews and the establishment of a national government here.

Some experienced political observers, however, are of an entirely different opinion. They maintain that if a European war breaks out the Arabs will be definitely the losers and the Jews have everything to gain. Their reasoning is that should Britain become involved in an international conflict it would be entirely to her interest to cooperate with the Jews.

There are 450,000 Jews in Palestine today. Of this number it is estimated that 40,000 were trained soldiers in the countries from which they emigrated to Palestine. There are also several hundred Jews who are former army officers, most of whom served in the German or Austrian armies during the last war. All these are ready to join the British colors and would form a substantial army to protect British interests on this side of the Mediterranean.

As for the other Arab countries, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt, Britain may be certain, it is said here, that they will side with her. They are in no position to defend themselves against a foreign invasion. In spite of Italian efforts it appears that the Arabs of the Near and Middle East dread the thought of an Italian invasion of their countries. And this goes for Germany too.

Arab politicians sometimes admit frankly that their frequent criticism of Britain in speeches or in the press is nothing more than propaganda for their masses for political purposes. They believe that if their countries were conquered by any European totalitarian ruler they would be treated as semi-civilized natives. Many of them are convinced that no other power would allow them such latitude, liberty, freedom and independence as does Britain.

Yet the Palestine Arab politicians remain adamant and are determined to continue to fight the British in Palestine until their national demands are granted. Several of their leaders in conversation here said that the Palestinian Arabs would not retreat one iota from their demands. Nothing but the complete achievement of these demands would satisfy them.

They went on emphasizing that they would never accept a partial solution of the Palestine question. Maintaining that they had always been tolerant and generous in their attitude here, they stated that they were willing to allow the Jews now in Palestine to remain as Palestinians, enjoying the same rights as Arabs, but they added that they would refuse to allow any Jewish canton, no matter how small.

They insisted that nothing less than a national government would satisfy them. Their quarrel now is with Britain. Although they would be willing to give Britain an absolute guarantee of the protection of her interests in Palestine, they would refuse to be under any mandate or to allow Britain to maintain any other hold here.

The Arabs hold that they cannot allow the establishment of a Jewish State or an independent canton, no matter how small, because they are apprehensive of the future. It was not a simple matter to arouse the Arab nation, these leaders maintain, but now that the nation is awakened it will go to all limits to attain its goal.

Some highly placed Britons minimize the Arabs’ self-confidence and reject the idea that the Arabs seriously believe that they will gain their ends.

“It is impossible,” said one of them. “Unfortunately, for the moment we are handicapped and have not been able to take really effective action against Arab rebels. The precarious European situation prevents us from concentrating too large a part of our forces here, but should conditions there settle down shortly we will e able to bring more troops to Palestine and with enough soldiers in the country we can wipe out the ‘Great Arab Rebellion’ here in less than a fortnight.

“If an international conflict does break out, then we can restore order here in forty-eight hours. Marital law will do the trick and do it properly.”

Seventy-five rifles, 10,000 rounds of ammunition and one Lewis gun, the biggest single haul yet by Arab terrorists here, were carried away last night when rebels attacked the central police station at Beersheba.

A British police sergeant who was in charge of the Arab police force there had his throat cut by a rebel dagger and died immediately.

None of the Arab policemen who constitute the defense force in that town offered any resistance to the rebel onslaught and since no other reinforcements came the rebels took their spoils and escaped unharmed.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW YORK TIMES:
To those of us who are accustomed to boast of the high standard of living of the American people the findings of the National Resources Committee reported on THE NEW YORK TIMES Sept. 4 should furnish considerable food for thought. From this report we learn that if the national income in 1935-36 were evenly distributed among families the income for each family would average $1,622.

In the population report of the National Resources Committee, published July 6, we may read on p. 114:

“On the basis of a large number of studies of family budgets showing the relation between total expenditures and those for food, the home economists have estimated that at 1934 food prices (which were lower than present prices) a family of four must have an annual income of at least $2,000 in order to consume the ‘adequate at moderate cost’ diet, and that the ‘liberal’ diet would require an income of at least $4,000.”

It may be said that 1935 and 1936 were depression years – although this might be questioned by the present Administration – but even if we take the boom year of 1929, the population report of the National Resources Committee tells us (p. 14) that “only 34.7 per cent of all families and unattached individuals in the United States had incomes of $2,000 or more, and only 10.7 per cent had $4,000 or more.” Incidentally, there are now 8,000,000 more people in this country than there was in 1929.

Even if the average income of the American family could be doubled, which is indeed an optimistic assumption, the chances are that the majority of our families would still have an income below the $2,000 required for an “adequate at moderate cost” diet.

When other evidence, such as the problem of erosion, diminishing return in agriculture, inadequate housing, rapid exploitation of irreplaceable mineral resources, chronic problem of unemployment and the fact that our geographical frontier is gone, is added to the above, it would appear difficult to escape the conclusion that there are already too many people in this country for the best interests of the general welfare.

TEST: “The great test for us of our time is whether all the groups of our people are willing to work together for continuing progress.”- President Roosevelt.

ABLE: “Germany is now able to defend herself against all, whether they come from the North, from the South, from the East or from the West.”- Adolf Hitler.

TEMPORARY: “We have learned through experimentation that government spending for relief purposes and in public construction affords tbut temporary relief.”- William Green.

PREDICITON: “The American Federation of Labor will not be found wanting when weighed in the light of reason.”- Frank Morrison.

STABLE: “Industrial relations today are being put more and more on a stable and practical basis.”-Secretary Perkins.

FROZEN: “We need a new pattern of democracy. The wheels of the world cooperation are frozen.”- Elisabeth Morris.

DANGEROUS: “The increasing and alarming centralization of power in Federal agencies, by arbitrary anddictatorial use of vast sums of money drawn from every State in this Union, is the most dangerous trend of these tiems.”- Governor Davey.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW YORK TIMES:
In his address at Denton on Sept. 5 President Roosevelt clearly stated the great fundamental fallacy underlying socialism as preached which counter-acts the good which otherwise might be accomplished by this movement. This same misconception of the situation is the Achilles heel of the New Deal, which destines it to failure in spite of the good intentions of its promoters and in spite of all the good it may incidentally accomplish.

The whole socialistic idea and purpose is based on the strategy of a few, by securing the backing of the misguided masses, to divide the wealth of those who have it – “to make common men blind to their common interests,” class conscious themselves because they conceive their interests to be opposed to the interests of all other people. This minority of socialists is deliberately trying to create prejudice in the minds of those who have not against their benefactors, who have, to create a new class feeling among people who instinctively are not class conscious.

Wealth is not a static, fixed thing to be divided among people. It is something being created and consumed daily. If it were possible to convert all wealth into consumable goods as desired and to cease production, this wealth would carry us only three or four years at our present rate of consumption. On the other hand, if all hands and all machinery could be used advantageously, even with the present rate of consumption, our wealth could be doubled within two or three years.

If a person or class lacks its share of wealth it is not because some one has taken it from him. It is not because there is not enough wealth to go around. It is rather because he or his class has not been able to produce the things which society demands in excess of his or their consumption.

Our capitalistic system, in spite of its numerous defects, is a wonderful system for giving all opportunities and rewards in proportion to services rendered. Those who have amassed large shares of wealth have, in all probability, rendered services in excess of the wealth with which they have been rewarded, and will continue to render service so long as their wealth lasts.

To impoverish the wealthy, even if the wealth be given to the needy, would give only temporary relief to the recipients. They would lose their source of employment and financial assistance. The more the rich have the greater will be the demand for goods and services. The wage-earners need others who have more wealth with which to buy their services. Their best friends are the capitalists.

Capital requires labor to make its capital produce revenue and labor requires capital to give its services opportunity to function to advantage. Neither can prosper without the other. The more each there is the better for each. Economically the wage-earner’s worst enemy is other wage-earners of the same class and the capitalist’s is more capital pressing for investment.

Just now we are suffering from a shortage of capital seeking investment. This is necessarily so when the government is antagonistic to capital. Consequently there is an excessive supply of labor seeking employment. If the amount of active capital could be increased or the supply of labor diminished the depression would be ended.

PRAYER: Basis Questioned
Why cannot religious leaders divest themselves of outmoded expressions and seek to instill more love in the human heart? It appears to me that there should be more kindly examples and less praying. In a world full of woe, with wars raging and innocents slaughtered, why are people led to believe that prayer will provide for them? If prayer were so efficacious, should not the sincere prayers of good and noble people who are now being mowed down by tyrants be answered ands the wicked silenced and stifles? – LOLA OGDEN MUNCIE, Meredith, N. Y.

It seemed certain that some of Chancellor Hitler’s advisers definitely wanted war – at least they wanted to attack Czechoslovakia and take a chance on the war’s spreading throughout Europe. Incitement in the German press, which violently attacked the Czechs, seemed preparation for military action if the Fuehrer decided to order it.

After consulting is small circle of intimate advisers and after communing with himself, Hitler acts on impulses, hunches, moods. So the fate of Europe may depend upon what his advisers tell him – or upon his mood of the moment. He reads little, he cannot read other languages than German. He relies upon intuition.

It is not certain that British warnings have permeated to him through his advisers or that they have not been discounted on the way.

Sir Nevile Henderson, the British Ambassador, was at Nuremberg this week, where the National Socialist party congress is being held, with full instructions on what to tell Hitler – but only if Hitler summoned him. The Ambassador speaks to Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, who in turn speaks to Hitler.

Thus Hitler normally is largely isolated from contact with the outside world, even the official one. He knows foreign views of the Nazis only as they trickle to him through his advisers, who may temper them to fit what they may interpret as his mood.

A picture of Hitler and some of his advisers was published throughout Europe this week. It was taken at Berchtesgaden just before Hitler went to attend the congress at Nuremberg.

Before Hitler stands Konrad Henlein, tall, with bristling hair, waiting for Hitler to tell him what to say to the Czechs. At Hitler’s left stands Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda, short, with a large head, short-cropped dark hair, looking very un-Nordic. On the right is Von Ribbentrop, a tall, Nordic type. Lesser aides stand respectfully grouped round the Fuehrer, who looks tired and worried.

Goebbels, Ribbentrop and Heinrich Himmler are regarded as the most sinister influences. Goebbels is highly intelligent, extremely bitter and ruthless. His own newspaper has been telling the Germans that the Czechs have been maintaining a reign of terror and brutality in the Sudeten regions. He controls the whole German press, which has been whipping up opinion against the Czechs daily. He is said to have advised Hitler that now is the time to strike to break up Czechoslovakia, which stands in the way of the German march to the eastward.

Von Ribbentrop is believed here to take the same view as his associates – that the British would not fight and hence the French would withhold action and Germany would have an easy victory. It is reported that Von Ribbentrop frankly told Sir Nevile Henderson that he did not believe the British warnings were serious. Von Ribbentrop, who was Ambassador to London and while here moved among pro-German circles, thinks he knows British opinion and that it will stand for anything. His confidence on this point was sustained this week by two British newspapers, which suggested giving the Sudeten regions outright to Germany.

Himmler likewise is counted among the fireaters who tell Hitler to flout the opinion of Europe and go ahead with the liquidations of the Czech State by armed intervention.

Mussolini also is believed to be influencing Hitler in favor of war, perhaps in the belief that the British won’t fight, perhaps because trouble in Central Europe would inevitably increase his power and bargaining position in the Mediterranean.

Division and hesitation in Britain, which have been manifest in so many crises and again this week, and the fact that Hitler got away with the Rhineland seizure and the Austrian annexation, provide a strong temptation for him to have another fling.

Marshal Goering and some of the generals are reported taking the view that action should be postponed to a more favorable moment – that the risk at this time is too great.

But Hitler, who is a curious mixture of timidity and rashness, who has a hard time making up his mind, but acts quickly when he as reached a decision, has yet to speak. His admirers in Germany and abroad always maintain that the hates war. Europe soon will know.

Turns out there is more non-Czech news after all. I didn’t identify the page this is from but I think it is from the middle of the front section. As this is the Sunday paper I posted some letters to the editor and then a story from News of the Week in Review news magazine, with an accompanying photo and a couple political cartoons. In the article somebody named Harold Callender explains how things work in the inner Nazi circle. He thinks he has it all figured out. He doesn’t.

My favorite among the letters to the editor is the one where the writer explains with mathematical precision why there are too many people in the U.S. and there is not enough food to go around with the surplus population.

...it would appear difficult to escape the conclusion that there are already too many people in this country for the best interests of the general welfare. GUY IRVING BURCH. Arlington, Va., Sept. 6, 1938.

Since that letter was published, our population has grown from 140 million to over 300 million, so we must not be nearly as well off as we were in 1938.

Wealth is not a static, fixed thing to be divided among people.

I wonder if Mr. Burch read this from the letter praising capitalism. It might have reassured him.

Note the photo above labeled as being Hitler with Joachim von Ribbentrop.

Now, compare that to this photo of (right to left): Hitler, von Ribbentrop and Molotov. Are they the same von Ribbentrop?

I don't think so.

"But Hitler, who is a curious mixture of timidity and rashness, who has a hard time making up his mind, but acts quickly when he as reached a decision, has yet to speak. His admirers in Germany and abroad always maintain that the hates war. Europe soon will know."

Indeed.
Czechoslovakia and Munich are extremely important, because they mark the moment in time when British policy changed from appeasement and accomodation to confrontation and threats of war.

I'm still reading Buchanan's book: The Unnecessary War

Much as I strongly disagree on his main points, it's a provocative review of the period, and I do recommend it.

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