They Wanted War

IF the Government ever starts a propaganda service for preparedness, it might well begin by reprinting Chapter XIII of this book. The title is ‘The Organization of the Fifth Columns. In methodical fashion Mr. Tolischus describes the apparatus whereby every German, no matter where he lives, is regarded as a National Socialist. The German abroad is carefully watched by a mammoth agency under Bohle. And woe betide him if he refuses to be ‘coördinated.’ The least punishment would be boycott. Even those who have taken out foreign citizenship cannot escape Nazi attention. They are called Volksdeutsche, and they must keep away from the melting pot, so as to be ready to join autonomous racial units when the time comes tor Hitler to ‘liberate’ the country which gives them hospitality.

Mr. Tolischus, who is one of the most painstaking and conscientious of our newspaper correspondents, ferrets the details of organization out of this and every other aspect of Nazi activity. No wonder the Nazis got rid of him. A ‘chiel amang you taking notes’ is bad enough, but a reporter with Mr. Tolischus’s unflagging zeal with question and pencil must have been quite intolerable. This is the conclusion of the Tolischus survey: that the Nazis have made Germany ‘by all odds the most formidable, ruthless, determined, and ambitious instrument of power the world has ever seen.’