Repository: UIHistories Project: Convocation - 1942 Winter-Spring [PAGE 32]

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38

University

of Illinois

Convocations

Armistice was signed, the blockade against Germany was nol lifted for

more than a year, and there must have been tens of thousands of Germans who were hurried to early deaths because food, raw materials, and the essentials of life could nol come into the exhausted countr; .Neither the military nor the political provisions of the peace tr tty were harsh in relation to treaties that had gone before. Hut no attempt was made to spare national morale, national self respect, and th petty insults entered like iron into the consciousness of a high Strung, proud people that had suffered a titanic humiliation. Since this was so, since the T r e a t y was written by hard-boiled realists like Clemenceau and Lloyd George, it was inevitable that there should be tremendous resentment a m o n g the G e r m a n people. It was inevitable that the treat}- should be considered as a Diktat, and that the passion for revenge should develop. T h e n a second alternative was opened to the Allies. Since their statesmanship had not reached out the hand of collaboration to the G e r m a n s , then surely it was practical and realistic. indeed, absolutely essential, to make certain that the military strength of German\- remain shorn, that no o p p o r t u n i t y be offered to the military clique to r e a r m the people. Alas, here too, the Allies displaye woeful shortsightedness. T h e y limited the G e r m a n A r m y to one hundred thousand men. But the}- did nothing to prevent this small arm\- from becoming the nucleus of a major r e a r m a m e n t . T h e one h u n d r e d thousand were trained as a select g r o u p of leaders. T h e y organized gymnastic clubs, hiking clubs, social clubs, all apparently innocent, but in reality military in their purpose, a purpose which any intelligent espionage system could have discovered. D i s a r m a m e n t apparently did not carry with it the supervision of the great industrial plants of Germany which began secretly to prepare the implements for the w a r of revenge. T h e story was told of a man who ordered a baby carriage. It came in its p a r t s from the factory. A day later he wrote back: "I cannot understand what is happening. I have tried to put the baby carriage together 37 times and each time it emerges as a machine gun !" T h e r e a r m a m e n t continued feverishly. But F r a n c e settled back to enjoy the fruits of its victor}- without accepting any o\ its responsibilities. Britain was content with the status quo and was irritated when some men discussed the necessity for taking risks to maintain it.

Her statesmen consistently preferred appeasement, The United States

had, from the very beginning, withdrawn from any responsibility for the victory which it had helped to win. Indeed, America not onl\ withdrew, bul built a Chinese wall of isolation about it. It set up im possible tariffs and would do nothing to collaborate with European peoples who were struggling desperate!} for a modicum o\ economic

security. America moralized a good deal all through this period. It

spoke with smug righteousness about the it and dog tights which