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butcher knife at his side. "Blut und Ehre" is
 
printed on the sharp blade. University students and
 
young "gentlemen" in general fight duels as under 
 
the old regime. Children at ages of eight to twelve 
 
are taught two or three times a week to throw bombs; 
 
from twelve to eighteen they practice with rifles; 
 
and after that age all are to serve fixed periods 
 
in the standing Army- more proud of the opportunity 
 
than Italians under Mussolini. No man can doubt the 
 
meaning of this; and anybody who resists or so much 
 
as talks pacifism or democracy is imprisoned, some-
 
times sadly beaten up. So Hitler is another Mussoli-
 
ni, also another Stalin.
 
 
And Germany, now encircled, as was to have
 
been expected, has an increasing standing Army and
 
more than a million young men excellently trained 
 
in all except the handling of up-to-date guns. She 
 
has an amazing barracks and drill ground equipment, 
 
air fields of the most up-to-date character and 
 
underground storage arrangements in all strategic
 
areas. How many thousands of competent pilots one 
 
cannot say; but reports say twice as many always 
 
as could be used at any one time. The manufacture 
 
of arms and tanks and poison gases goes on day and 
 
night. There is a national debt, half of it short-
 
term floating, of about 40 billion marks, about 
 
half as heavy, according to resources, as that of 
 
Italy. Two years from now Germany will have a 
 
population of 67,000,000 increasing faster than 
 
the populations of both France and England, and 
 
the completest military machine in the world.
 
Last night, talking to the Admiral of the Navy, 
 
I said: "In rather short time you will have by 
 
far the greatest Army in Europe, abundant sup-
 
plies of weapons, a debt about as burdensome as 
 
that of Italy (about which he had been speaking) 
 
and increasing unemployment. What will you do?" 
 
He said: "go to war." That is what Dr. Schacht 
 
said six months ago to me. The Chancellor always   
 
says to such lnquiries: "Peace, peace, always."
 
At the same time we know that he is placing, police
 
all over the de-militarized Rhine zone, police 
 
who have been well drilled. There is an assembly
 
 
of