CONDITIONS IN GERMANY
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sin,—I must confess to having read with a certain sense of disappointment Sir Evelyn Wrench's article in your issue of this week. As a Jew I freely concede that it would be un• reasonable for me to expect him to show the same degree of anger, as I do, at the inhuman lengths to which the present German rulers have proceeded in their organized attempt to snake life unbearable to their Jewish subjects, the great majority of whom can point to a German ancestry of many generations.
But how doesit help, for him to counsel your readers "to try and maintain an impartial attitude towards Germany and show that we are really desirous of understanding the German aspirations " ?
The answer, unfortunately, is that we already understand only too well the present aspirations of Germany's rulers, and that clear understanding renders it absolutely impossible for all liberty-and-justice-loving Englishmen to maintain the " impartial attitude " that Sir Evelyn desiderates. The pro- nouncements and edicts of Herr Hitler and his satellites have made it only too abundantly clear that reaction and the worst forms of national egotism and racial hysteria are now the dominating influences in shaping German policy, and that they are pregnant with hideous evil to the twin causes of Peace and ordered .civilization in Europe. How, I ask, can we hope to serve these two sacred causes by any pretence at maintaining an impartial attitude at this juncture ?
On the contrary, in the measure and degree that we love Germany—the old-time Germany of the last century—we must continue to protest with unabated vigour and earnestness against the present madness of, a wholly unchristian and non-moral, " Machtpolitik."—I am, Sir, &c.,
Previous page
