Roanoke Rapids herald. [volume], July 19, 1945, SECTION A, Page 6, Image 6

About Roanoke Rapids herald. [volume] (Roanoke Rapids, N.C.) 1931-1948

Image provided by: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library, Chapel Hill, NC

                
THE ROANOKE RAPIDS
ADVERTISING - PRINTING - EMBOSSING
OFFICE EQUIPMENT & SUPPLIES
THE LARGEST NEWSPAPER IN HALIFAX COUNTY
By Mall — $2. Yearly — In Advance
ROANOKE RAPIDS, NORTH CAROLINA
CARROLL WILSON, Owner and Editor
Entered as Second Class matter April 3rd, 1914, at the poet office
at Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, under Act Of March 3rd, 1879
PUBIJSHEDEVERY THURSDAY AFTERNOON
SHALL WE LET JAPAN OFF EASY?
We are hearing occasionally that the word
“unconditional” should be stricken out of the term
“unconditional surrender” as applied to Japan.
Those who make this suggestion argue that
Japan should not be reduced to total defeat, be
cause then we should lose a valuable bulwark
against a growing China and an ambitious Russia.
Why we should fear a strong and prosperous
China is hard to understand. On the contrary, our
dreams of “four hundred million customers,” can
not come true until China’s standard of living has
been raised. A developed, industralized China may
well prove the world’s greatest market place, con
tnbutmg to the well-being of all other nations.
As for Russia, we do not know that she will
ever bother us. Japan has done so. We should be
making a poor gamble in exchanging a possible
aggressor for a certain one.
Russia has no creed 2,000 years old demanding
that she conquer the earth. Japan has.
Russia has plenty of elbow room. Japan has
not.
Russia has no bone to pick with the West.
Japan, after defeat, will be inflamed with an abid
ing resentment. Her statesmen and writers are al
ready propagandizing a “hundred years’ war.”
To rely upon a sworn enemy to help us curb
a present and probable friend, one of the three
chief pillars of world security, would seem to be
the last word in folly.
“But,” say our businessmen who used to trade
with the Orient, “we want Japan after the war to
be able to buy from us. If you destroy Japan we
will have no business.”
How about business with the rest of the
Orient? We must in the long run choose between
business with Japan and business with Asia.
This is true because an unchecked Japan would
certainly resume her program of monopolizing Asi
atic trade. American business was rapidly being
squeezed out before the war. There could be no ob
jection to this if it were based upon fair competi
tion. But Japan used wage slavery, government
subsidy and military force to achieve her ends.
To let Japan off easy would be to perpetuate
this system. Japan should have a fair chance to
jmake a decent living — but there is no road to this
goal except by way of complete defeat and inter
national control maintained long enough to teach
her how to live and let live.
THE PASTOR COULDN'T FOOL THE GI
A correspondent recently called Pastor Nie
xnoller “the most anti-Nazi of all Germans." The
correspondent was reporting an interview with the
Pastor shortly after his liberation. Another report
er who covered the same interview was Sgt. Stan
Swinton, Staff Correspondent for the Army paper
Stars and Stripes. GI newsman Swinton was not
fooled by a clerical collar, pious words, or even the
obvious fact that Niemoller had opposed Hitler.
Stars and Stripes told the truth, and it’s a truth
with which every American civilian had better be
come acquainted before the German High Com
mand asks us to trust him as the new leader of the
new Germany.
This is the Niemoller record:
In World War I, he was a German submarine
commander, proud of his part in a campaign which
made no differentiation between military and civ
ilian vessels.
.
When the National Socialist Party was formed,
Niemoller became a member. He preached “ansch
luss” from his pulpit; he preached Germany’s right
to the Sudetenland, the Ukraine and other sections
of non-German Central Europe; in other words, he
was a confirmed and potent pan-German.
He remained a member of the Nazi Party until
Hitler attacked the Church. Only then did Niemoll
er break with Hitler. His opposition to Nazism was
never more than opposition to Nazi church policy.
From his concentration camp, Niemoller made
active, repeated and written efforts to enlist in the
German Navy. He had no quarrel with the military
system which was then embarked on the fifth war
of aggression it had perpetrated upon the world
within a century.
When Niemoller was liberated from the con
centration camp, the world’s newspapers carried
his photograph. He had lost a little weight, but he
had not starved, he had not been beaten. He had not
been treated like the political prisoner he was sup
posed to be.
A few days ago, in the presence of British and
American journalists, he plainly said that what the
new Germany needed was an authoritarian state;
that it could not become democratic; in other
words, that the new Germany must in basic politi
cal principal be no different from the Germany of
Bismark, the Germany of Kaiser Wilhelm, the Ger
many of Hitler.
Those are the facts. They warrant the assump
tion that the German High Command, which, for
much more than a century, has been the power be
hind various types of aggressive German Govern
ments, did not place all its eggs in the Nazi basket.
While creating Hitler and backing him to the full,
the German High Command knew that Hitler might
not be the leader who would conquer the world for
Germany. Against the chance of Hitler's failure,
the German High Command needed other leaders
in reserve, men of differ
ent outward stripe but of
a similar inward politi
cal heart. Pastor Ni^
moller is one such reser$
ist. And as we look at the
photographs which show
how well preserved, how
carefully preserved, was
this Pastor during eight
years of imprisonment,
we want to know wbf
preserved him and what
for?
COMMENDS
STATE GUARD
Brig. Gen. James W. Jenkins,
Commanding N. C. State Guard,
Henderson, N. C. .
Dear General Jenkins: ™
The annual encampment of the
North Carolina State Guard at
Fort Bragg, opening last Friday
and continuing until next Sunday,
is an occasion for paying highly
deserved tribute to the organiza
tion and the men who comprise its
personnel. The service it has ren
dered the State and its communi
ties during the emergency war
period when the National GuatfL
is absent has not been adequately
appreciated, in my opinion.
as j. understand it, tne encamp
ment is a period of intensive train
ing to promote efficiency and not
a mere vacation. And I note the
men were carried to Fort Bragg
in school buses.
Fortunately, the State Guard has
not been called upon to mobilize *
in any community for active ser
vice, to quell riots or preve^
lynchings or preserve order when
disturbances got beyond the con
trol of the local authorities, so far
as I can recall. But many of us
can remember when the old Nat
ional Guard was called upon for
such services. And, probably be
cause the State Guard has not
been needed for such emergency
activities, I know some individuals
are disposed to discount its use
fulness. 'H
But every citizen should remem
ber that the State Guard has been
available at all times for emer
gency service and nobody will ever
know what need for such an arm
ed force might have arisen if such
an organization had not been
known to be available. Its exist
ence has been a protection to the
citizens of the State and their
property and to many citizens no
doubt the knowledge of its avails
ability has been a comforting sat
isfaction in contrast to what other
wise would have been the disquiet
ing knowledge that the National
Guard had gone to war and that
there was no agency taking its
place in North Carolina and avail
able for service in emergency.
I know many of the men who
enlisted in the State Guard, and
its officers, have served the State
during these war years at gre4P
personal sacrifice, and not for
money or glory. They deserve the
applause of all our citizens.
GENERAL MECKLENBURG.
Burton - Edwards
Miss Ellen Margaret Edwards
became the bride of James Leo
Burton in a simple but impressive
ceremony in the presence of a few
immediate friends in the Clerk’*
Office in Emporia, Va., on Thurs
day, June 14, at eight (/dock in
the evening, with Sol Wrenn of
ficiating, using the ring ceremony.
The bride is the attractive dau
ghter of Mr. and Mrs. Dolph Ed
wards of Roanoke Rapids. She was
attired in a street length dress of
black crepe with white accesso
ries. Her flowers were of white
roses.
Mr. Burton is the son of Mr_
and Mrs. J. L. Burton of Roanoke*^
Rapids. He received his education
at the Roanoke Rapids High
School and is a wholesale dis
tributor of sea foods. He is a vet
eran of World War XL
After a short wedding trip the
couple will make their home at
Hie Roanoke Ave. 1
V.'. 1 ■■-ii ’■ Nv A