Chapter IV
"Hands up, Herr Oberst Baron!"
WAITING there would have proved an incredibly tedious business had not the Baron proved a most knowledgeable man and a great talker. He had travelled considerably in his time and had friends in many countries so he deplored the post Great War era in which the policies of most European nations had led to the shutting off of one from the other.
As he pointed out, previously to 1914 passports had been unknown unless a European was travelling to some semi barbarous country where he might need official aid in securing means of transport or other assistance. Apart from that, men of every nation had been free to come and go without let or hindrance and could even settle in foreign countries without restriction if they wished.
In France, England, Italy and Scandinavia there had been thousands of Germans earning an honest living and abiding loyally by the laws of the countries that gave them hospitality. This freedom of movement and often permanent interchange of peoples had been enabling the European nations to get to know and appreciate one another's qualities in an ever increasing degree throughout the whole of the last century. Englishmen had found with some surprise that Frenchmen did not exist solely upon a diet of frogs, and Germans had been able to see for themselves that all Englishwomen did not have flat chests and protruding teeth. Had that state of things continued for another half century, with facilities for travel becoming ever easier, faster and cheaper, the constant mingling of the nationalities on a friendly footing might well have created a mass goodwill strong enough to prevent any Government from daring to declare war on its neighbours; the more so as, by the fact that there was then no restriction on Germans, English, Americans, Italians or anyone else living in any country that they chose,
the whole question of living room seemed already to have been solved.
That splendid prospect of a possible permanent peace had been shattered by the war of 191418; after which both victors and vanquished had been faced by the terrible problem of construction and through huge unemployment figures in their own countries had been compelled to put a bar up against migration from abroad. That, maintained Colonel Baron von, Lutz, was the root cause of this new struggle in which the major nations were now engaged. Germany was not a rich country compared with many other European states and she had even been robbed of such Colonial possessions as she had had; yet the German race was breeding just as fast as ever. Therefore they just either be given over seas territory or, better still, be allowed free ingress to other countries for their surplus population; otherwise the standard of life in Germany would become a lowered by more and more people trying to cut a slice off a single loaf that anarchy would inevitably result.
He was not a Nazi and most strongly deprecated Hitler's power politics and disregard of Germany's word pledged by solemn treaty; but he argued that eighty million people, representing one of the most advanced races in the world, could not, be expected calmly to sit still and allow themselves to be gradually starved to death. Hence the German people as a whole had Become desperate and had allowed Hitler to lead them into the present assault upon the great Democracies.
Charlton, who had done a short course at the College of imperial Defence, pointed out that the problem of giving Germany back her Colonies was by no means as simple as it looked. Where, he asked, would Britain be now if Germany had not been deprived of her African possessions after the last Great War? In the last half dozen years Hitler would have established huge arsenals and air bases in German West, Tanganyika and the Cameroon ’s and would have turned their ports into heavily fortified lairs for great flotillas of commerce raiders and submarines. The coming of the aeroplane, the increased range of U boats and fast motorcraft, the destructive power of mines and direct communication by wireless had absolutely revolutionized strategy in the last quarter of a century and would have made such enemy bases a hundred times more potent as factors in the struggle than they were in 1914. With them in her hands Germany would have been able totally to disrupt Britain 's sea traffic in both the South Atlantic and the Indian Ocean, cutting her and France off entirely from the Eastern hemisphere in which lay the greater part of both their Empires. In addition Hitler's African bombing squadrons would have had Johannesburg, Cairo, Cape Town and the Suez Canal at their mercy; and any determined attempt to protect these African territories would have necessitated Britain and France detaching so large a proportion of their Air Forces from the main theatre of operations that they could have been left virtually defenceless at home. A Blitzkrieg then might even have caused the Democracies to lose the war. Freddie paled with his intensity as he added firmly: "That is why never, never again must Germany be allowed to hold one square mile of African soil."
As a soldier von Lutz readily conceded the terrible threat to the security of the British Empire which would lie in the return of the German Colonies, if Germany had an ambitious or unscrupulous ruler, but he submitted that whatever peace plan was eventually agreed the German people must be given an opportunity for expansion, otherwise such a peace could only be the forerunner of yet a third Great War when there had been a sufficient interval for Germany to pile up yet more armaments. In his view the only permanent solution lay not in giving Germany territories of her own outside the Reich but in once again opening up all countries to all peoples.
While agreeing in theory Charlton suggested that the difficulty would be the different standards of living demanded by different nationalities. The Germans, for example, were used to working much longer hours than the British and the people of many other countries were content to live on a much lower scale than either so far as food and clothing were concerned. Therefore a great influx of foreigners into Britain or the United States would mean huge unemployment among the British or Americans themselves and tend to draw down their scale of Living, which they were naturally anxious to protect.
But the Baron did not seem to think that that would necessarily follow. He argued that, on the contrary, if the Trades Unions played their proper part the scale of living in the more prosperous countries could be maintained and that of other countries gradually brought up to it; thereby eventually making life happier and more secure for mankind throughout the whole world.
As they talked on Freddie learned many things about Nazi Germany and was the more readily able to understand why such great numbers of the Germans were behind Hitler at all events, for the moment when he heard the Baron describe the drastic changes many for the better which the Socialist activities of the National Socialist Party had brought to the German masses. On his asking what proportion of the German people von Lutz thought was really whole heartedly with the ' Führer the Baron replied:
"I give you analysis 'of this question. Ten per cent of the people are very much pro Nazi and ten per cent of the people are very much anti Nazi. The other eighty per cent, they haf not he brain to think for the selves at all. They are led most times by the pro Nazi Press and believe that Chamberlain deliberately planned their country to encircle. Each time Hitler as a diplomatic triumph gained they haf shouted their heads off in applause. That eighty per cent was right through in favour of he Anschluss with Austria; also the annexation of Czechoslovak and the war with Poland. Now they wait only to cheer for Hitler again if he any spectacular military success over the Allies can make. Against that, they will make cheers for him as long as he makes successes and they get enough to eat; because they do not live happy under the Nazi regime and are called upon many comforts to sacrifice. If things go very bad in Germany during the next few months through the Blockade, or Hitler makes a Blitzkrieg which is no goot, that eighty percent will turn coats in a flash; perhaps set off only by sortie little thing; but instead of making cheers for him they will be yelling for his head."