Chapter 12 Volume 1 Chapter 8 Challenges and Repercussions

1935 March 16, 1935 Hitler orders conscription March 16 France introduces two-year military service March 24 Sir Simon and Mr. Eden visit Berlin Streza Conference May 2 Franco-Soviet treaty June 7th Mr. Baldwin became Prime Minister Sir Hall became Foreign Secretary Mr. Eden was appointed Minister of the League of Nations Anglo-German Naval Agreement its dangers far-reaching in Europe Defended by the Foreign Secretary The German Army increased the strength of French and German troops. Years of surreptitious activities, secret or covert preparations, were now a thing of the past; Hitler finally felt strong enough to make his first public challenge.On March 9, 1935, the Luftwaffe was formally established. On the 16th, it was announced that the German Army would be based on the national conscription system; shortly thereafter, various decrees were issued to realize these decisions. In fact, actual actions It started early.The French government, possessing detailed information of what was to come, had also announced, a few hours earlier on the same fateful day, that the military service would be extended to two years.Germany's actions were an open and formal affront to the Peace Treaty of Versailles by which the League of Nations was established.In the past, Germany violated the treaty secretly or with various excuses and pretentious methods. At that time, because the victorious countries were obsessed with pacifism and busy with domestic politics, it was easier to shirk their responsibilities and not officially announce the breach of the peace treaty. Or be violated, but now, the problem is so straightforward and brutal.Around the same day, the Ethiopian government appealed to the League of Nations to protest Italy's intimidating demands on it.Against this background, on March 24, Sir Simon and Eden, Lord Seal, visited Berlin at the invitation of Hitler.The French government considers this an untimely move.The problem facing France now is not the disarmament that Macdonald had tried to force them to implement a year ago, but the extension of compulsory military service from one year to two.According to the prevailing public opinion at the time, this was really a laborious job.Not only the Communist Party, but even the Socialist Party will vote against it.When Mr. Léon Bloom said that the French workers would rise up against Hitler's aggression, Thorez replied, amidst the cheers of the pro-Soviet factions, that we will never allow the working class to be dragged into the so-called war for democracy against fascism. middle.

Apart from wishing everyone a good life, the United States is unwilling to intervene in everything in Europe, and has decided that it will never make trouble for European affairs in the future.But France, Great Britain, and of course Italy, although they disagreed with each other, all felt the need to condemn Hitler for this categorical breach of the peace treaty.These questions were then brought up for discussion at a conference at Strezza, under the auspices of the League of Nations, of the main Allies of the previous war. Mr. Eden devoted himself almost exclusively to the study of foreign affairs for almost a decade.He left Eton College at the age of eighteen to participate in the First World War, and served in the 60th Rifle Brigade for four years. After many bloody battles, he made repeated military exploits, was promoted to deputy brigade commander, and was awarded the Military Cross.Elected to the House of Commons in 1925, shortly thereafter, during Mr Baldwin's second administration, he was appointed State Secretary to Foreign Secretary Austin Chamberlain.In 1931, under the MacDonald-Baldwin coalition government, he was appointed Foreign Office Undersecretary, working under the new Foreign Secretary, Sir Simon.Although the duties of the Deputy Secretary are often changed, his responsibility is always limited.He must assist the head of state to implement the policies decided by the cabinet, but he himself is not a member of the cabinet, nor can he participate in cabinet meetings. argument or resignation.

During these many years Mr. Eden acquired an extensive knowledge of foreign conditions, and an intimate acquaintance with the activities and ideas of the Foreign Office, which bears such a great responsibility.Sir Simon's conduct in foreign affairs in 1935 was not approved by any influential figure in either the Opposition or the Conservative Party.Since then, Mr. Eden has been increasingly valued by people for his knowledge and extraordinary talent.Consequently, at the end of 1934, after being appointed Lord Seal, he remained in unofficial but very close contact with the Foreign Office at the cabinet's request; and was therefore invited to accompany his old boss, Sir Simon, to Berlin. , for this ill-timed but not fruitless visit.The Foreign Secretary returned to London after his meeting with Hitler with the already mentioned important news that, in Hitler's opinion, Germany had now achieved an air force parity with Britain.Mr. Eden was then ordered to visit Moscow, where he established contacts with Stalin, which were revived after a few years, to the benefit of both parties.On the way home from this visit to Moscow, his plane encountered a violent and persistent storm, and he was almost unconscious when he landed after a thrilling flight.The doctor said it was inappropriate for him to go to the Streza meeting with Simon, and he was ill for several months afterwards.Under the circumstances, the Prime Minister decided to attend in person and with the Foreign Secretary, even though his own health, eyesight, and intelligence were clearly failing.Therefore, in this very important meeting, the British lineup is weak.Also present at the meeting were French representatives Flandin and Laval, and Italian representatives Mussolini and Suvic.

It was agreed at the time that open breaches of the solemn treaty which had been made at the expense of millions of men would never be tolerated, but the British representatives made it clear from the outset that even if the peace treaty were breached, they would not consider sanctions possibility.This, of course, limits the meetings to mere talk.The meeting unanimously passed a resolution to the effect that the breach of the peace treaty by one party, that is, one party, is inadmissible, and the Executive Council of the League of Nations will be requested to announce the exposed situation.On the afternoon of the second day of the meeting, Mussolini strongly supported the move, bluntly and publicly affirming his opposition to the aggression of one country against another.The final declaration is as follows:

The purpose of the policy of the three countries is to collectively maintain peace under the organization of the League of Nations. The three countries have agreed to adopt various feasible methods to oppose unilateral violations of the peace treaty that endanger European peace, and will adopt close and sincere joint efforts for this purpose. action. The Italian dictator emphasized the words Peace in Europe in his speech, pausing with a striking gesture after the word Europe.His emphasis on Europe immediately caught the attention of representatives of the British Foreign Office.They pricked up their ears, and it was clear what Mussolini meant. On the one hand, he expressed his willingness to cooperate with Britain and France to prevent Germany from rearming. There is room for launching an expedition.Shall we bring this up at the meeting?That evening, officials from the British Foreign Office held discussions.Everyone was very keen to win Mussolini's support on the German question, and thought it inappropriate at this time to warn him not to invade Abyssinia, which would obviously irritate him greatly.The question, therefore, was not raised, and passed away quietly; while Mussolini thought that the Entente had acquiesced to his statement, leaving him free to deal with Abyssinia.In a sense, he also has some reasons for this idea.France remained silent on the issue, and the meeting was closed.

Then, from April 15 to 17, the Executive Council of the League of Nations examined the alleged violation of the Treaty of Versailles by Germany ordering universal conscription.The countries that sent representatives to the Executive Yuan meeting were: the Argentine Republic, Australia, the United Kingdom, Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Turkey and the Soviet Union.All these countries voted for the principle that the peace treaty should not be violated by unilateral action, and referred the matter to the League of Nations Assembly.At the same time, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark in Scandinavia, deeply concerned about the naval balance in the Baltic Sea, also united in their support.The total number of countries that made formal protests was as many as nineteen countries, but no country or group of countries was prepared to use force even at the last moment, so their decisions could only be empty words!

Laval originally had no intention of approaching Russia with the resolute spirit of Bartau, but now France urgently needs it.Most importantly, for those concerned about France's future, the two-year military service, approved by a narrow majority in March, must also secure unanimous national support.Only the Soviet government can sway the important part of the French people who are loyal to it.Moreover, in France there is a general desire to restore the old alliance of 1895, or something similar to it.On May 2, the French government signed the Franco-Soviet Treaty.This ambiguous document guarantees that the two countries will assist each other if one country is invaded within five years.

Mr. Laval is on a three-day visit to Moscow in order to achieve tangible results in the French political arena.There he was welcomed by Stalin.They held long talks, some of which have never been announced, so let's talk about them here.What Stalin and Molotov were eager to know, of course, was the strength of the French army on the Western Front: How many divisions were there and how long would they serve?After exploring this aspect, Laval said: Can you try to give some encouragement to the religions and Catholics in Russia?This will be of great help to my relationship with the Pope.Stalin said: Ah!pope!How many divisions does he have?As to Laval's answer, I do not know; but of course he may well have mentioned several legions which were not necessarily visible in the procession.It was never Laval's intention to impose any particular obligations on France, which was what the Soviet Union routinely demanded.Nevertheless, he managed to get Stalin to issue a public statement on May 15 approving of France's defense policy in order to maintain the forces necessary for national security.After receiving this instruction, the French Communist Party immediately turned around and enthusiastically supported the national defense plan and the two-year military service system.Although the Franco-Soviet Treaty was a factor in European security, it did not provide binding guarantees for either party in the event of German aggression, so its effectiveness was extremely limited.France has not entered into a real union with Russia.Moreover, the French foreign minister stopped in Krakow, Poland on his way home to attend the funeral of Marshal Piłsudski.There he met Goering and had a very cordial talk.Laval's suspicion and dislike of the Soviet Union were promptly conveyed to Moscow through German channels.

The gradual decline in Mr MacDonald's health and abilities has rendered him unable to continue as Prime Minister.He was never popular with the Conservative Party.Because of his political and wartime behavior and his socialist beliefs, the Conservative Party had long held him against him, only to moderate it out of pity in later years.He was the man Labor hated most; they hated him, obviously for good reason.Although the Labor Party was basically founded by him.But in 1931, because of his betrayal (this is what the Labor Party accused him of), the Labor Party was crippled.He has just seven Labor followers in a huge majority of the government.The disarmament policy which he pursued with the utmost personal power has proven to be a total failure.The general election is not far away, and in the general election, there will be nothing he can do.In these circumstances, the announcement on June 7th that he and Mr Baldwin would switch positions, and that Mr Baldwin would serve as Prime Minister for a third time, was not at all unexpected.The position of foreign minister also changed at the same time.Sir Hall has worked hard in the Indian Affairs Department and has been honored with the passage of the Government's India Act and is now moving to a more important role.Sir Simon's foreign policy has for some time come under fire from some powerful Conservatives close to the government.Now he has been transferred to the Ministry of the Interior that he is familiar with.The post of Foreign Secretary was succeeded by Sir Hall.

Meanwhile, Mr. Baldwin resorted to a novel expedient.At this time, Mr. Eden's reputation was increasing and his health was restored. He appointed Mr. Eden as Minister of the League of Nations.Mr. Baldwin's purpose was simply to show his regard for the League of Nations, and for our affairs in Geneva, so as to be in harmony with the strong current of public opinion in favor of the League of Nations.About a month later, when I had an opportunity to comment on what I called my new plan for having two foreign secretaries of equal status, I reminded MPs of the shortcomings of this arrangement:

The Prime Minister said yesterday that this is only a temporary experiment, and I was very happy to hear that.I also feel that this may not be sustainable, and it may not be implemented in the future.What is needed is the general idea of ​​a single person in charge of foreign affairs, grasping the whole, so that every factor, every event, serves the general purpose agreed by Parliament.Whoever should be Foreign Secretary must have supreme authority in the Ministry, and everyone in this important Ministry must obey him, and he alone.I remember when we discussed unity of command during the war, when Mr. Lloyd George said: It is not a question of one general being better than another, but of one general being better than two generals.There is no reason why a strong Cabinet should not be with the Foreign Secretary every day in these difficult times, and there is no reason why the Prime Minister should not call him or his staff from time to time.Now that the issues are so complex and the times are so fluid, I think this confusion will be made even more confusing by dual leadership and dual responsibility. All of these words are unfortunately on point. At a time when men and things were in this state, the British Government did a most astonishing thing, the cause of which, at least in part, came from the Admiralty. It is always a dangerous thing to allow soldiers on land, sea and air to engage in politics.They entered a new field whose standards were quite different from those with which they had been accustomed, and, of course, they followed the wishes and even the instructions of the Lord of the Admiralty and the Cabinet, for they alone could bear the responsibility.But there was also a strong wind of approval in the Admiralty.Negotiations between the British and German Admiralties had been going on for some time about the proportions of the two navies.According to the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles, in addition to allowing six light cruisers not exceeding 6,000 tons, Germany shall not have more than six warships with a displacement of 10,000 tons.The British Admiralty recently discovered that the tonnage of the two pocket battleships newly under construction in Germany, the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau, both far exceeded the limit permitted by the peace treaty, and their specifications were completely different. It is a 26,000-ton light battlecruiser, or it can be called the most advanced merchant destroyer. Faced with the fact that this brazen and fraudulent breach of the peace treaty had been carefully planned at least two years before (1933) and had already begun to be carried out, the Admiralty still considered There is a need for an Anglo-German naval agreement. The British government proceeded without consulting its French allies and without informing the League of Nations.While the British government appealed to the League of Nations and asked member states to support protests against Hitler's violation of the military terms of the peace treaty, they secretly negotiated to leave the naval terms of the Versailles peace treaty out of the blue. The gist of the Anglo-German Naval Agreement was that the German navy should not exceed one-third that of the British.This was of great attraction to the Admiralty, who remembered that before the war they had been content with a ratio of sixteen to ten.In order to achieve this prospect, and at the same time rely heavily on German guarantees on the surface, they recognized Germany's right to build submarines that the peace treaty expressly prohibited her from building.According to the agreement, Germany can build submarines that can reach 60% of the strength of British submarines, and if Germany considers the situation to be special, it can also reach 100%.Of course Germany must ensure that their submarines are never used to attack merchant ships.That being the case, why do they still need submarines?For, obviously, if the rest of the agreement is observed, submarines cannot decide a naval battle so far as warships alone are concerned. The stipulation that the German fleet could reach one-third of that of Great Britain would allow Germany to carry out plans to build new ships, and it would take at least ten years before German shipyards would be operating at full capacity.Therefore, in fact, there are no restrictions or restrictions on the expansion of the German Navy.They can speed up construction as much as possible.In fact, Britain planned to allow Germany to build far more warships than Germany intended, partly, of course, because of the competition for steel plate between building warships and making tanks.According to regulations, Germany can build five capital ships, two aircraft carriers, twenty-one cruisers and sixty-four destroyers.But in fact, at the outbreak of the war, only two capital ships, eleven cruisers, and twenty-five destroyers were completed and nearly completed, not a single aircraft carrier, and less than half the amount we generously promised.Had they built no or fewer battleships and concentrated their available resources on cruisers and destroyers, they might have been in a better position when they went to war with Great Britain in 1939 or 1940.We now know that Hitler had told Admiral Raeder that the war against Britain would probably not begin before 1944 and 1945.Therefore, the development plan of the German Navy is based on a long-term basis.Only submarines were built to the extent permitted by the agreement.When they were able to exceed the sixty per cent limit, they immediately invoked the 100 per cent permitting them to build, and by the time the war began, fifty-seven had in fact been built. As for the design of the new battleships, since Germany was not a signatory to the Washington Naval Agreement or the London Conference, they had an extra layer of convenience.When Britain, France, and the United States were all limited by 35,000 tons, they immediately built the Bismarck and Tirpitz.The designs of these two giant warships both have a displacement of more than 45,000 tons. Once completed, they will definitely become the most powerful warships on the world's seas. At the same time, this agreement also gave Hitler great convenience in diplomacy to split the Allied Powers, allowing one of the countries to easily forgive him for breaking the Versailles Peace Treaty. full freedom of armament.The announcement of the agreement dealt another blow to the League of Nations.The French had good reason to complain that Britain allowed Germany to build submarines, because this would jeopardize their basic interests.Mussolini saw from this incident that Britain has no faith in its allies: as long as Britain's own naval interests are guaranteed, it is obviously willing to accommodate Germany as much as possible, regardless of the interests of allies threatened by the expansion of the German army .This seemingly immoral and selfish attitude of Britain was nothing more than encouraging Mussolini to continue his plan to invade Abyssinia.As for the Scandinavian countries, only two weeks ago, they bravely protested Hitler's introduction of conscription in the German army, and now they find that Britain secretly agreed with Germany to build a navy, although its strength is only three times that of Britain's. One-tenth, but even within this limit, it is enough to make it the roost in the Baltic Sea. The British ministers made a great effort to Germany's proposal to cooperate with us in abolishing submarines.In fact, the Germans are well aware that this proposal is subject to the condition that other countries must agree to it at the same time. Everyone knows that other countries will never agree, so they made this proposal.The reason why Germany agreed to restrict the use of submarines and refrain from inhumane attacks on merchant ships was also because it knew that other countries would not agree.Who can believe that the Germans, once they have a large submarine fleet, will not make full use of this weapon when they see their women and children starving under the British blockade?I call this kind of thinking downright cheating. This agreement is not only impossible to push forward disarmament, if it is put into practice, it will inevitably lead to an upsurge in the construction of new ships all over the world in a few years.The French navy, with all but its newest ships, was in need of refitting.And this, in turn, will affect Italy.As for us, it is clear that we must massively rebuild the British fleet in order to maintain a three to one advantage in new ships.Perhaps we think that since the German navy is allowed to be one-third that of Great Britain, this means, to the Admiralty, that England has three times the navy of Germany.This may allow us to rebuild our fleet reasonably, if too late.But where are those politicians? Admiralty Lord Bolton Ayres-Sir Munsell announced the agreement to Parliament on 21 June 1935.As soon as I had the opportunity, on July 11, and then again on July 22, I attacked this agreement: I do not believe that such British action alone will serve the cause of peace.Its immediate reaction was to increase the tonnage of the German fleet, giving it absolute control of the Baltic, and soon one of the factors preventing war in Europe would gradually disappear.As far as the situation in the Mediterranean is concerned, I think we have more difficulties.If France had to modernize its fleet to counter Germany, and Italy did the same, the nations would certainly build new ships in great numbers, and seeing that, we too would be compelled to rebuild our fleet, or else It will affect our position in the Mediterranean.But the worst-case scenario would be to affect our position on that side of the world, that is, in China and the Far East.This is really a windfall for Japan!Just look at the consequences.The Admiralty said face up to reality.However, if this plan is completed, most of the British fleet will be stationed in the North Sea.This means that the entire situation in the Far East has changed greatly, not only to the detriment of the United States and Britain, but also to the detriment of China I regret that the revival of the German Navy has not been consulted with our European allies, nor with many of those countries which, like ours, are horrified by the fate of Germany's great military build-up.It is impossible to estimate exactly what kind of armament Germany has expanded.We have seen that they can build far more powerful warships than we expect, without our Admiralty knowing it beforehand.We've seen what they've done with the Air Force.I think that if we could know with certainty how much Germany spent in the current financial year, it would be a shock to this Court and to the whole country at the magnitude of Germany's expenditures for all-out war preparations.Massive sums are being spent on war preparations throughout the country, so that this mighty German nation and empire is turning into a vast arsenal, and is indeed on the verge of mobilization. In his first speech as Foreign Secretary on July 11, 1935, Sir Hall, in response to various domestic and European criticisms, put forward arguments to the contrary.It should also be mentioned here: The Anglo-German Naval Agreement was not at all a selfish agreement.We will never enter into an agreement that, in our opinion, is unfavorable to other naval nations.And the agreement we have concluded, we believe that it will not only not hinder, but will definitely promote a comprehensive agreement, otherwise we would never have concluded it.As for the disarmament of the navy, it has always been dealt with separately from the disarmament of the army and air force.The naval question has always been dealt with separately, and, so far as I know, it has always been the intention of the naval nations. But apart from legal reasons, it seems to us that the interest of peace, which is the principal object of the British government, does indeed justify this agreement.In the opinion of our naval experts, we should regard this agreement as a security agreement for the British Empire.Here again we find a rare opportunity to eliminate the arms race in the German navy, which had been one of the chief causes of resentment before the Great War.Incidentally, during the discussion, the German government made an extremely important statement that they would henceforth eliminate one of the causes that made war so terrible, namely the unrestricted attack by submarines on merchant shipping.Thirdly, we do think that this is a good opportunity to reach an agreement which, from the naval point of view, will obviously benefit other naval nations, including France, since the French fleet is now nearly equal to our fleet, so this agreement The agreement would give the French fleet a permanent forty-three per cent advantage over the German fleet, whereas before the war it was about thirty per cent less than the Germans. So I trust that when the world takes a dispassionate look at these results, The great majority of nations that favor peace and the limitation of armaments will say that the British Government has taken not only the wisest course, but the only one possible under the present circumstances. In fact, all that was done was to allow Germany to expand vigorously for the next five or six years. At this time, in terms of the army, Germany officially implemented the conscription system on March 16, 1935, which was the beginning of a fundamental challenge to the Treaty of Versailles.The steps taken in the expansion and reorganization of the German Army are not limited to technical aspects. The full functions of the army in the National Socialist state need to be clearly defined.The purpose of the law of May 21, 1935, is to expand the technical backbone of the secretly trained specialists and make them a symbol of the armed forces of the entire country.The German Army was renamed the Wehrmacht.The army is under the command of the supreme leader.Every soldier, not taking an oath to the Constitution as before, but personally taking an oath to Hitler.The Ministry of War reports directly to the Führer.Military service is the main duty of the people.The responsibility of the army is to educate and permanently unify the people of the country. Article 2 of the law states: The Wehrmacht is the armed force of the German people and the school of military education. This is actually the official and legal embodiment of a passage by Hitler in Mein Kampf.The passage is: The future National Socialist state should not repeat the previous mistake of assigning the military tasks it did not have or should not have.The German army should not be a school for the preservation of national identity, but a school for the mutual understanding and adjustment of all Germans.Whatever divides the life of the nation, it should be united through the army.It should also broaden the horizons of young people from their narrow homeland to the entire German state.It is not the frontiers of his birthplace that he must respect, but those of his country; for that is what he is to defend. On the basis of these ideas, the law stipulates the establishment of new military regions.Organize the Army into three command areas, with separate headquarters in Berlin, Kassel and Dresden.Divided into ten (later changed to twelve) military regions.Each military region has a corps consisting of three divisions.In addition, it was planned to organize a new force, the armored division, and three armored divisions were soon established. A detailed plan for military service was also drawn up.One of the main tasks of the new regime is to organize the youth.From joining the Hitler Youth League, German teenagers joined the SA for two years on a voluntary basis when they were eighteen years old.According to the law of June 26, 1935, participation in a labor camp became a compulsory obligation for every German male who had reached the age of twenty.He must serve the country for six months, building roads, building barracks, or filling swamps, thus making him physically and mentally fit for military service, the highest duty of a German citizen.In the labor camps, the emphasis was on strengthening the social solidarity of the German people regardless of class; in the army, the emphasis was on discipline and the unity of the national territory. The important task of training the new army and expanding cadres according to Sekt's army building ideas has now begun.On October 15, 1935, Hitler once again blatantly violated the provisions of the Versailles Peace Treaty and resumed the German General Staff Academy. Hitler attended the official opening ceremony in person, accompanied by generals of the three armed forces.The staff college is the tip of the pyramid, and the base of the pyramid is the countless labor camps.On November 7, 1935, the first batch of young people born in 1914 were called up to join the army; a total of 596,000 young people were ready to receive training in war techniques.Thus, at least on paper, the German army suddenly developed into an elite force of 700,000 men. Along with the training came the problem of raising funds to rearm and develop industry to meet the needs of the nation's new army.By secret order, Dr. Schacht became the de facto economic dictator of Germany.Sektor's pioneering work is now being put to the test of the highest order.There are two main difficulties: first, expanding the officer corps; Second, organize special forces such as artillery, engineering and communications.By October 1935, ten regiments had been formed.A year later, two more regiments were added, and in October 1937 a thirteenth regiment was added.The organization of the police also becomes part of the armed forces. It is well understood that after the first youths born in 1914 were conscripted into the army, the number of recruits would gradually decrease in the following years, due to the decline in the birth rate during the World War. There is the same situation.For this reason, in August 1936, Germany extended the period of military service to two years. There were about 464,000 men born in 1915, plus those born in 1914 who were extended for one year, so the number of German men who participated in formal military training in 1936 1,511,000, excluding semi-military Nazi party-affiliated organizations and labor camps.In the same year the strength of the French army, excluding the reserves, totaled 623,000 men, of whom only 407,000 remained in France. The following figures, which even the average accountant can estimate with considerable accuracy, are telling: A comparison table of the number of French and German men born between 1914 and 1920 and conscripted between 1934 and 1940: (Germany above, France below) 1914 596,000 279,000 1915 464,000 184,000 1916 351,000 165,000 1917 314,000 171,000 1918 326,000 197,000 1919 485,000 218,000 1920 636,000 360,000 common (Germany) 3,172,000 (France) 1,574,000 These numbers, until they become true over time, are just a shadow of a warning.Nothing was done until 1935 to bring the French Army and its huge reserves to the strength and power it should have had, not to mention its many and powerful allies.Even at this moment, the authority of the League of Nations, which we have so easily obtained, could have been decisively resolved, and perhaps prevented this development.It is possible to send Germany to the Geneva Conference for a detailed explanation, and to organize a joint investigation mission of the Allied Powers to investigate its breach of the peace treaty, rearmament and army building.If Germany refuses, immediately reoccupy the Rhine bridgehead until Germany does fully comply with the peace treaty.This is not enough to provoke a vigorous resistance, and perhaps not to shed blood.In this way, the outbreak of World War II could be postponed at least indefinitely.Many facts and their general trends are well known to the French and British staffs, and are not entirely ignorant to the Governments of both countries.But the French government, which has changed so frequently through obsessively playing party politics, the British government, on the contrary, has agreed to maintain the status quo, muddle through, and lead to the same evils.Neither country has been able to take forceful or decisive action, although such actions are fully in line with the treaty and taken for granted.The French government did not fully accept the disarmament demands due to the pressure of the Allies, but the French government, like the British, had no guts to effectively resist what Seckett said at his time about the revival of German military power.