Mexborough & Swinton Times – Saturday 23 September 1939

Frankenstein and His Monster

Though our worst fears have been realised and the resistance of Poland has with terrible swiftness been overcome, our determination to fulfil every pledge is only deepened. The overthrow of Poland was completed and ensured by the treacherous invasion of the Red Army—the last inconceivable infamy, whatever Mr. Bernard Shaw may say of its deeper significance and ultimate consequences. But for the intervention of the Soviet Army, the Polish forces might have kept the field until winter came to their aid. Even now, with incredible heroism the defenders of Warsaw are holding out against a hellish bombardment, and all over Poland gallant troops, deserted and betrayed, are fighting and dying in a desperate attempt to drive back the invader. The Fiend himself, in his Danzig speech, was obliged to pay tribute to the valour of the Polish soldier, while sneering (with more or less of justice as it seems) at the higher and highest commands.

Hitler cannot really believe that the overthrow of Poland, however swift and complete, is decisive. He has won the first round, with the aid of the foreign Power he most loathes and fears. What must be the private reflections of the German citizen on the fantastic cowardice of this double assault on a nation so hopelessly inferior in armament and equipment, especially in the air? What pride can the German soldiery (to do them justice, among the most chivalrous in the world) feel in mean and cheap butchery of this sort? Though this foul crime may leave Hitler’s conscience unaffected, the natural kindliness of the German people must be revolted by it. We are under no illusions as to the necessity for overpowering this same kindly people. So long as they are under the spell of a leader without a decent instinct, they must be fought and crushed, and it is idle—or worse—to go on insisting that we have no quarrel with the Germans. Our quarrel with them is that they continue to support a megalomaniac who has at last revealed his readiness to drown the world in blood rather than forego a tittle of his senseless ambitions. His one hope of accomplishing his crazy aim is in the help of the most sinister Power in the world.

Frankenstein has created a monster who will destroy him. It is at least possible that the intervention of the Soviet, though sealing the immediate fate of Poland, has probably also sealed the fate of Hitler. The German leader has made his bargain with the Devil, and will certainly pay the full price in due season. He has met more than his match in the Satanic Stalin. Already he has kept his appointment with Moscow, and Waterloo lies behind. Like Glendower, he has called up spirits from the vasty deep but he will not find it so easy to dismiss them. He has given the German people an ill neighbour and brought the nightmare of Bolshevism many miles nearer the heart of Germany. Every thoughtful German to-day must be pondering the awful cost of a Hitlerism inextricably bound with the Bolshevism that has blighted and blasted Germany once and will infallibly do so again. Germany cannot now, if she would, make good the damage done in Poland. It is no longer in her power to repair the wrong, for she has admitted a partner more powerful and tenacious than herself who will not lightly let go spoils acquired so cheaply. Meanwhile, Nemesis waits in the West for both.