textfiles-politics/pythonCode/personTestingOutput/mccabe05.xml

<xml><p> 27 page printout</p>

<p> Reproducible <ent type='ORG'>Electronic Publishing</ent> can defeat censorship.</p>

<p> This file, its printout, or copies of either
are to be copied and given away, but NOT sold.</p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom, Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
**** ****</p>

<p>Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius</p>

<p>THE BLACK INTERNATIONAL No. 5</p>

<p> HITLER DUPES THE VATICAN</p>

<p> HOW THE PAPACY WAS SOLD IN <ent type='PERSON'>AUSTRIA</ent>
AND SOLD CIVILIZATION IN <ent type='ORG'>CZECHO</ent>-SLOVAKIA</p>

<p> by Joseph McCabe</p>

<p> HALDEMAN-JULIUS PUBLICATIONS
GIRARD -- : -- KANSAS</p>

<div> **** ****</div>

<p> CHAPTER
I The <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> Sells <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent> to the Hunmen ......... 1</p>

<p> II The Approach to <ent type='GPE'>Munich</ent> ............. 7</p>

<p> III The Murder of <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> ............ 13</p>

<p> IV Why <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> Betrayed the <ent type='NORP'>Czechs</ent> ........... 19</p>

<p> V On the Eve of <ent type='EVENT'>the World</ent>-Tragedy .......... 23</p>

<div> **** ****</div>

<p> Chapter I</p>

<p> THE CHURCH SELLS <ent type='PERSON'>AUSTRIA</ent> TO THE GUNMEN</p>

<p> H.G. <ent type='ORG'>Wells</ent>, who confessed to me a year ago that he had become
convinced that I was right about the danger of <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> -- he had more
than once amiably ridiculed my preoccupation with it -- said one of
his superbly audacious things about it recently (September 27); and
he said this to the most distinguished body <ent type='ORG'>the British</ent> Association
for <ent type='ORG'>the Advancement</ent> of Science ever got together. This generation,
he thought, might have to endure a series of wars waged "in the
name of those dead religions that <ent type='ORG'>cumber</ent> the world today." And he
went on to make a parenthetic remark which must have made learned
eyes open wide behind their horn-rimmed spectacles:</p>

<p> "A dead religion is like a dead cat -- the stiffer and more
rotten it is, the better it is as a missile weapon."</p>

<p> It is obvious what religion he had in mind: the religion of
Petain, <ent type='ORG'>Weygand</ent>, and Laval, of <ent type='ORG'>Leopold</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent>, of De Valera,
<ent type='PERSON'>Vargas</ent>, and <ent type='PERSON'>Salazar</ent>, of the Quislings of <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>,
and <ent type='GPE'>Croatia</ent>, the religion of that <ent type='ORG'>Black International</ent> which has for</p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdon
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
1
.
HITLER DUPES THE VATICAN</p>

<p>ten years helped the arch-criminals of history to dupe and enfeeble
the democracies and to <ent type='GPE'>smirch</ent> our civilization with their foulness
and brutality. In the day of reckoning it must stand in the dock
with the other murderers.</p>

<p> In these little books I prepare the indictment and furnish the
evidence. In the early stage's of this corruption of civilization
the four masters of crime -- <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent>, and the Black
International, which we may justly personify in the present <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>,
<ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent>-Pius -- were isolated, like crooks working in different
quarters of a large city. <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent> was brooding over an old plan to
exploit <ent type='LOC'>Asia</ent> which had been drawn up when <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> was a ragged
little country lad sweeping the floor of his father's saloon, and
<ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> was begging nickels of his drunken and disreputable father
in the sticks. The delicate <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent>ese nostrils would have quivered
at sight of them. Even in 1922, when the industrialists and
<ent type='NORP'>royalists</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> raised <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent>, for their own purposes and to
his astonishment, to the position of a prince, <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent> turned down
the overtures of the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent>. Seven years later the sharp-eyed
<ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent>ese statesmen saw the <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> make Mussolini's tottering throne
safe and win world-recognition of it for him by a formal alliance,
and they now turned to the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> and asked it to -- for a
consideration -- render the same service to themselves, which it
did. Then <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>, impressed by the value of this holy alliance,
sought the same spiritual assistance of the <ent type='ORG'>Black International</ent> and
got it.</p>

<p> So the plot, using the international organization of the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> to lull suspicion in other countries, was unified and took
on cosmic proportions. <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent> were to rule and
exploit the earth. The <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> -- he thought -- would be the universal
chaplain, with the plan in reserve, of a League of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> power's
strong enough to cheek any trickery of <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>. That will be cold
history -- or an epitaph -- in a few years. I differ from <ent type='ORG'>Wells</ent>
about those "wars of religion" in the future. If this generation
which he and I will soon quit does not emasculate the Black
International when this war is over it will deserve all it gets,
but I have faith in it.</p>

<p> In earlier books I described the insidious preparatory moves
in this collegial plot. Under the noses of the democracies, which
actually applauded year by year except, for a time, in the case of
<ent type='GPE'>Manchuria</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Abyssinia</ent>, 200000000 folk were brought under what
is politely called the authoritarian regime and added to the
200000000 of <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent> . . . Wait a bit, you
protest. Where do you get these figures? Nobody in 1936 drew our
attention to this remarkable development. I need say only: add up
the populations of the stolen provinces of <ent type='GPE'>China</ent>, of <ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent> <ent type='LOC'>South</ent>
<ent type='GPE'>America</ent>, of <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Abyssinia</ent>, etc., and then find out why your
oracles did not warn you in 1936 or 1937.</p>

<p> I have shown that the <ent type='ORG'>Black International</ent> played a very active
and important part in this preparation for the launching of the
plot in 1939. Can anybody even profess to doubt the value of the
assistance it gave in destroying democracy in <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>, and
<ent type='LOC'><ent type='NORP'>Spanish</ent> <ent type='GPE'>America</ent></ent> and supporting the annexation of <ent type='GPE'>China</ent> and
<ent type='GPE'>Abyssinia</ent>? To this you must add its help in keeping Hungary, Eire, </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdon
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
2
.
HITLER DUPES THE VATICAN</p>

<p>and <ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent>, in recommending Fascism (politely called the
corporative state) in a solemn Papal Encyclical (Quadragesimo Anno
1931) to the entire <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> world, in working on <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
sentiment in <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Holland</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>, and in
sustaining the hatred of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>. We return later to these points.</p>

<p> By 1938 the <ent type='ORG'>Axis</ent> on which Europe was to run was firmly
constructed and ready to operate. <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> was to have Europe south of
the <ent type='LOC'>Danube</ent>, and an <ent type='NORP'>African</ent> empire. <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> to have all north of
that river. <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent>, the <ent type='NORP'>Napoleon</ent> of the <ent type='LOC'>South</ent>, little dreaming
that by 1941 he would be an old soldier on crutches begging coppers
from <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>, was blind to the emphatic statement in <ent type='PERSON'>Mein Kampf</ent> that
there is no room in Europe for two great powers. The rest of the
world was still dreaming its dream of the benevolent and beneficent
destruction of Socialism everywhere by these apostles of order and
discipline. So <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> made a bolder move: one that might provoke,
and ought to have provoked, war.</p>

<p> He needed <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>, Hungary was in the plot
and very loyal to the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent>; and in any case <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> was to visit
it in 1938. With the control of <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> and
Hungary the conquest of the <ent type='LOC'>Balkans</ent> was assured, the broad road to
<ent type='GPE'>Turkey</ent> and the <ent type='LOC'>East</ent> was open, and the blockade by <ent type='ORG'>the British</ent>
fleet, on which small-minded <ent type='NORP'>British</ent>-statesmen relied, was deprived
of its sting. The first step was to get <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent> and the <ent type='LOC'>Danube</ent>, and
in this the <ent type='ORG'>Black International</ent> was very useful.</p>

<p> In the summer of 1938 I discussed this annexation of <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>
with an important <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>. He pleaded first that there was no
annexation. It was an "adherence" (Anschluss) of the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> people
of <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent> to their natural national unit. The facility with which
<ent type='GPE'>America</ent> accepted this plea is dangerous. <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s will raise it
strongly at the settlement -- quite recently a <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> Socialist
refugee insisted on it in conversation with me -- and it is ominous
that <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> statesmen never name the <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>ns amongst the peoples
they are going to liberate. However, the chief interest here is an
incidental remark that my <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> friend made. "If," he said, "you had
gone to war over <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>, you would have found that we <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s had
not enough petrol at the time to last more than ten days." He was
an important industrialist, intimate with some of the leaders, and
it was very clear to me that he was convinced of this.</p>

<p> How much the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> had to do with the criminal failure of
<ent type='GPE'>France</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> to begin arming at once -- allowing that they
were not in a position to fight in the spring of 1938 -- and
drawing nearer to <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> we cannot say, but do not for a moment
imagine that here I raise a wild and groundless suspicion. In 1937,
as we shall see later, <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> had visited <ent type='GPE'>Paris</ent> -- the first Papal
<ent type='ORG'>Legate</ent> to do so since the fall of <ent type='NORP'>Napoleon</ent> -- and on <ent type='EVENT'>New Years</ent>'
Day, 1938, <ent type='GPE'>Paris</ent> had the piquant spectacle of a representative of
the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> decorating and kissing its freethinking Premier and other
Ministers. There was much besides this, but we will deal with the
whole question of the corruption of <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> in a later book.</p>

<p> We are here not simply dealing with the overt action of the
<ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent>, which as in the case of <ent type='GPE'>Abyssinia</ent> and the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>,
often finds it convenient to act through the local hierarchy and </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdon
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
3
.
HITLER DUPES THE VATICAN</p>

<p>itself remain silent. We are studying the share of the Black
International in the world-debasement and tragedy. As far as
<ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent>-Plus is concerned it is enough that he persisted in his
attempts to conciliate <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> and never said a word of the mildest
censure of Germany's action in <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>. He knew that <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> had
agreed to it as part of the general plan. But that the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> in
<ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent> enthusiastically supported <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> is not disputed, and no
section of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> was more docile to the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent>. We shall see
in a moment the trickery by which it was represented in <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>
that the <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>n <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> acted independently of the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent>.</p>

<p> The way had been prepared, we saw, by the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> poisoning
what <ent type='ORG'>the Annual Register</ent> calls "the Socialist watch-dog." <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>
would certainly not have had a walk-over in <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent> if the Social
<ent type='NORP'>Democrats</ent>, who firmly held <ent type='GPE'>Vienna</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Linz</ent> and had hundreds of
thousands of followers in the country, had still been strong in
1988. The <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Chancellor, <ent type='ORG'>Schusdhnigg</ent>, was himself vigorously
opposed to annexation, and it is interesting to speculate what
would have been the effect of an appeal to <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>, with
its magnificent <ent type='ORG'>Skoda</ent> arsenal close at hand, <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, and the
Socialists and Radicals of <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> were there. The <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, by
destroying them, destroyed this early chance of defeating the
world-plot. It had killed the Socialist leaders, had put tens of
thousands of the more spirited Socialists in jail, and had drilled
the country into docility to itself.</p>

<p> For <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent> was, as we saw, a theocracy, a priest-ruled state
as not even <ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent> or Eire was. Dollfuss, who assassinated the
Socialists in 1934 after consultation with <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent>, was promptly
assassinated by the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>s. His successor, <ent type='ORG'>Schuschnigg</ent>, hated the
<ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>s and was opposed to annexation, but the last word was with
Cardinal <ent type='ORG'>Innitzer</ent>, bead of the <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>n <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>; and he had the
support in the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> government of Seyss-Inquart, who was a
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> and a <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> and was prepared at any time to stab his leader
in the back. The main fact is, however, that since the suppression
of the Socialists in <ent type='GPE'>Vienna</ent> in 1934, the whole country was
prostrate at the feet of the cardinal. Socialists were whipped into
silence and the whole scheme of education, in school and press,
imposed absolute docility to the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>.</p>

<p> That there was an understanding between Cardinal <ent type='ORG'>Innitzer</ent> and
<ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>, who made his usual glib promises to respect and protect the
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, nobody denies. When <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> marched into <ent type='GPE'>Vienna</ent> on March 13,
1938, all the church-bells in <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent> rang, and a Swastika flag
waved over the ancient Cathedral. Two days later <ent type='ORG'>Innitzer</ent> had a
cordial interview with <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>, and the cardinal and four of his
leading bishops issued a manifesto summoning all <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>ns to vote
for <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> in the coming plebiscite. The cardinal wrote "Heil
<ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>" after his signature. It is a sufficient refutation of the
plea that the <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>n's wanted to join <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> that <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> angrily
refused to ask them this by a plebiscite as <ent type='ORG'>Schuschnigg</ent> proposed.
<ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> turned the idea into a farce by making it a plebiscite of
the whole <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> nation. In this farce <ent type='ORG'>Innitzer</ent> and his bishops
concurred and ordered all <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>ns -- they were now all <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s
in <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> law -- to support <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>, calling him the man "whose
struggle against <ent type='NORP'>Bolshevism</ent> and for the power, honor, and unity of
<ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> corresponds to the voice of Divine Providence."</p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdon
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
4
.
HITLER DUPES THE VATICAN</p>

<p> Was a supreme <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> authority with a large clerical staff
really ignorant of Hitler's true plan and motive? They spoke a
common language, remember, and were near neighbors, and there was
not the least secrecy about Hitler's plan to exploit Europe, If
<ent type='ORG'>Innitzer</ent> understood the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> aim -- and it is incredible that he
did not -- his association of it with "the voice of Divine
Providence" was blasphemous from the religious viewpoint and
loathsome from any angle.</p>

<p> But did <ent type='ORG'>Innitzer</ent> take this line upon instruction from or
without consulting the Papal Secretary of State? It is not material
for my purpose to settle this, as we are studying the share of the
<ent type='ORG'>Black International</ent> as a whole. It happens, however, that the
question was referred to the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> by <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s of other
countries, probably <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>, who were outraged by this gross
interference in politics, and in favor of a corrupt and very
dangerous schemer. And I quote the facts about the <ent type='ORG'>Jesuit</ent>ical
action of the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> from a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writer, C. Rankin, in his
flattering biography of <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent>-Plus (The <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> Speaks, 1940).</p>

<p> On April 1st, apparently in reply to <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> complaints of
Inititzer's conduct -- for so public a rebuke of a cardinal would
otherwise be unprecedented -- a <ent type='ORG'>Jesuit</ent> speaker on the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> Radio
censored the <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>n cardinal and regretted that he had not
recognized "the wolf in sheep's clothing." It is clear that this
brought <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> protests, for the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> organ then declared that
the radio talk was not official. Even the pious and rather obtuse
<ent type='ORG'>Ransom</ent> adds that "it was characteristic of the extreme delicacy of
the situation" that this denial was not published but was
"telephoned direct to foreign correspondents by persons instructed
by the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> to do so." He seems to be unaware of the irony of
his words. The <ent type='PERSON'>Osservatore</ent> said that Innitzer's action was not
authorized: Radio said that it was opposed to <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> policy and
anonymous officials in the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> press bureau then said that the
criticisms of <ent type='ORG'>Innitzer</ent> were not authorized. The cream of the joke
is that all three -- radio, printing press, and press bureau -- are
in the Pope's back yard, so to say, and would not dare to say a
word on a matter of importance without consulting <ent type='ORG'>the Secretariat</ent>
of State. About this time some <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n film company put into
circulation a very impressive film, with most edifying and largely
untruthful commentary on work in the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> City. It did not point
out the convenience of the above arrangement.</p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Innitzer</ent> was invited to <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> to explain his action, and the
<ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> was careful not to declare that he had been censured.
Instead of this, the <ent type='PERSON'>Osservatore</ent> on April 6 gave a long and
sympathetic account of the cardinal's reasons for his action.
Keesing's <ent type='ORG'>Contemporary Archives</ent> gives the gist of Innitzer's
arguments, as published in the <ent type='NORP'>Swiss</ent> press at the time, but there
is no need to consider them here. The <ent type='ORG'>Black International</ent> had
rendered a new and most important service to the crooks, and the
<ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> had neatly dodged the censure of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s in <ent type='NORP'>democratic</ent>
countries.</p>

<p> <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> knew that, as we have seen several times, local
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> hierarchies will, in their own interest, finally submit to
anything that the <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> does. For a year or two Mundelein had </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdon
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
5
.
HITLER DUPES THE VATICAN</p>

<p>roused <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n Catholic's to a white-hot indignation against the
<ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>s for persecuting the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> and be<ent type='GPE'>smirch</ent>ing the fragrant lives
of the communities of lay brothers. You would expect apoplexy when
the news came that the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> had sold <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent> to the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>s, and
given them control of the <ent type='LOC'>Danube</ent>, and smoothed the path of their
bloody ambition, yet there was only a momentary flutter. <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s
bowed to the "unauthorized" assurance that <ent type='ORG'>Innitzer</ent> had not
consulted the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent>, and, as the world at large soon forgot
<ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent> and resumed its admiration of <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> efficiency, the matter
was dismissed.</p>

<p> One needs no documentary evidence that this conspiracy between
the <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>n <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> and the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>s was directed from <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>. National
branches of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> are bound to consult the <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent>
before taking action on any issue of grave importance. That is what
<ent type='ORG'>the Secretariat</ent> of State is for. And when the issue is one that
affects other countries and the international policy of the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent>
the obligation to consult headquarters is so strong that an evasion
of it is unthinkable. The question of joining <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent> to <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent>
was clearly of this character. Such union would not only strengthen
Hitler's position to a very important extent, so that it was a most
valuable opportunity for one of those bargains for which the
<ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> is always alert, but to put an additional 7000.000
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s under <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> rule after what had happened to the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> in
<ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> this was so serious a matter that the suggestion that
<ent type='ORG'>Innitzer</ent> acted on his own initiative may be dismissed as frankly
childish.</p>

<p> But, while the concurrence and lead of the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> is certain,
the ground of its policy is not clear. The key to it seems to be
the extraordinary persistence of <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> in trusting the promises
of <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>. He had in 1932 made, in return for valuable service, a
promise of a very favorable agreement with the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent>. He had
immediately dishonored the agreement, yet <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> and the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>
bishops had continued to appeal to him. In 1936 he had opened the
series of vice-trials of priests and monks which had dealt the
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> a heavier and more ignominious blow than ever, yet the
<ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> had, with occasional mild complaints about persecution and
paganism -- never about crime and brutality until <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent>
was threatened with extermination -- remained friendly. We shall
see that at the opening of the great war he had made new promises
to the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, and we shall find the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> bishops in 1941
complaining, while they still supported him, that he had not
fulfilled his promises! This persistence in looking to the man who
had plainly said years before in his book that he made his own
moral law -- "What is Necessary is Right" is the title of a chapter
of <ent type='PERSON'>Mein Kampf</ent> -- is the key to this strange development. I say
strange because, even if we admit that the annexation of <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>
was inevitable, we should expect the <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>n <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> to have met it
with quiet dignity instead of waving Swastika flag's and chanting
"Hell <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>" like the treacherous scum of every country that
<ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> invaded.</p>

<p> Whatever <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> promised Cardinal <ent type='ORG'>Innitzer</ent> in their very
cordial interview he cheated with his usual fluency. At the moment
of writing this it is confidently reported -- and as confidently
denied, of course -- that <ent type='PERSON'>Myron Taylor</ent> has taken to Washington </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdon
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
6
.
HITLER DUPES THE VATICAN</p>

<p>certain terms of peace, or certain new promises, which the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> is
transmitting on behalf of the arch-liar of modern history. One
would have thought that by 1941, when the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> had seen <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> lie
and cheat so brazenly for eight years, he would have been ashamed
to produce any proposals from such a source. For within three
months of his pleasant and confiding talk with <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> the cardinal
was a prisoner in his palace, and hundreds of his priests and monks
were in the hands of the police, generally on the usual disgraceful
charge. <ent type='NORP'>Swiss</ent> papers said that "50000 <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>ns have left the
church this quarter, and a further 50000 are expected to quit in
the next quarter." The <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent> was, as a result of its
trust in <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>, disestablished and reduced to the same pitiful
condition as the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent>. It had helped <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> to secure
one of his bloodless victories. It now bled.</p>

<p> Chapter II</p>

<p> THE APPROACH TO MUNICH</p>

<p> Yet the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> had already begun to smooth the path of
Hitler's sordid ambition in another area of Europe: to undermine
the loyalty of a large part of <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>. In a lecture which
I delivered in <ent type='GPE'>London</ent> in 1936 I predicted that when the conquest of
<ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent> was completed the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>s would turn to <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>. Many
of my audience in those day's of inglorious inactivity and
childlike trust smiled, but although the country was not marked out
for attack in <ent type='PERSON'>Mein Kampf</ent> its fate, could easily be foreseen.
Hitler's original ambition to make one empire of all <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>-speaking peoples, with the <ent type='GPE'>Ukraine</ent> for an additional granary, had
grown mightily when he saw the cowardice and folly of the
democracies, and <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> stood like a second <ent type='GPE'>Gibraltar</ent>, a
natural and formidable land-fortress across the route to <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>,
the <ent type='LOC'>Balkans</ent>, and the <ent type='LOC'>East</ent>. It commanded the <ent type='LOC'>Danube</ent>, and it had
within its own frontiers a very virile people with considerable
resources.</p>

<p> But while <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> made bravery the supreme Nordic quality and
boasted in every speech of the irresistible might of the <ent type='PERSON'>Reich</ent>, he
preferred to proceed wherever possible by deceit. Not <ent type='PERSON'>Thor</ent>, but
<ent type='PERSON'>Tocri</ent>, the cunning, is the head of the modern <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> pantheon. The
world to be dominated and exploited must be taken over piecemeal
and by ruse, guile, and corruption. <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> had men, and especially
women, steadily corrupting <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> for him, and he imagined that the
tactless <ent type='PERSON'>Ribbentrop</ent>, who had a stupid idea of the influence of the
aristocracy in <ent type='GPE'>England</ent>, was winning or duping that country for him.
In <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent> he used the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, as he had used it for what it was
<ent type='GPE'>Worth</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>, and he used it in <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>.</p>

<p> The cutting-up of the old <ent type='NORP'>Austro</ent>-Hungarian <ent type='GPE'>Empire</ent> at
<ent type='GPE'>Versailles</ent> had been crude and cruel, but it is a lie originating in
<ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> and quite generally accepted in <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>, that
the <ent type='GPE'>Sudeten</ent> provinces of <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> had then been detached
from <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent> and tacked on to <ent type='GPE'>Bohemia</ent>. Any map that was published
before 1919 will show that these provinces are part of ancient </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdon
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
7
.
HITLER DUPES THE VATICAN</p>

<p><ent type='GPE'>Bohemia</ent>, which before the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> troops so mercilessly trampled
on it in the Thirty Years War was the most promising of the smaller
civilizations of Europe. Its sturdy people were instinctively anti-Papal and had raised the banner of Hus before <ent type='PERSON'>Luther</ent> was born. In
its exhausted condition it had been taken over by <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent> and had
been made compulsorily <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> in the customary way.</p>

<p> It was still under <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent> when the industrial development of
the nineteenth century began and its splendid natural resources now
gave promise of wealth. The mineral resources were in the
mountainous fringe, nearest to <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>, which became familiar to us
as the <ent type='GPE'>Sudeten</ent> province -- taking their name from the mountains --
and <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>, the dominant power, followed the policy which <ent type='GPE'>England</ent>
had once followed in <ent type='GPE'>Ireland</ent>. <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>n and <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> capital and
enterprise, using <ent type='NORP'>Czech</ent> labor, were to reap the profit. The <ent type='NORP'>Czechs</ent>
were to remain the hewers of wood and drawers of water for the
<ent type='NORP'>Viennese</ent> capitalist. It was in this way that the border provinces
had been filled with a <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>-speaking <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> population.</p>

<p> Until <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>sm began its insidious propaganda in the countries
which it meant to annex these <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s of <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>n (and partly
<ent type='NORP'>German</ent>) descent had lived quite amiably with the <ent type='NORP'>Czechs</ent>. The
country as a whole was <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>. I have pointed out how the
reckless propaganda of recent years has in this respect run to a
most absurd extreme. For several years our annuals and other
reference-books have -- see <ent type='EVENT'>the World</ent> Almanac, for instance -- said
that the population of <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> is 10500000 and then that
it contains 16831636 <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s (besides 1129758
Protestants, 1173479 members of other religions, and 854636 of
no religion)! <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> statistics exhibit many miracles but this is
the choicest. If the last figure is changed into something more
than 2000000 -- for 854636 is the number of those who boldly
wrote on the census-paper that they had no religion -- it will be
seen that <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s really numbered about 8000000 in a total
population of about 14000000, and half these <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s were
illiterate peasants and woodcutters.</p>

<p> Here you will begin to understand the action of the Black
International in working for the destruction of <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>.
The creation of that republic -- or the establishment of it, for it
had already declared itself an independent republic -- by
<ent type='GPE'>Versailles</ent> was followed by internal developments which, year after
year, caused consternation at the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent>. Bordering on <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> the
country was bound to feel in a high degree the wave of <ent type='NORP'>Communist</ent>
and anti-religious propaganda which disturbed the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>
everywhere, but there was an even worse danger, from the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>
point of view, in <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>.</p>

<p> The reaction against <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>, which in spite of its fame for
the amiability of its character had a grim record of tyranny, on
the part of both <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> and state, in <ent type='GPE'>Bohemia</ent>, there was a
remarkable revolt against the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent>. Almost at once (1920) a very
large body of the priests and their people cut their connection
with <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> and founded a national (<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>) <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>slovak <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>.
The very orthodox <ent type='ORG'>Irish Independent</ent> (August 13, 1938) said that
"nearly a million people and 200 priests left the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>" in 1919
and 1920, that at the date of writing there was a painful shortage </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdon
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
8
.
HITLER DUPES THE VATICAN</p>

<p>of priests in <ent type='GPE'>Bohemia</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Moravia</ent>, and that a large part of the
acting priests were of peasant extraction and of a low cultural and
intellectual quality. The leading <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> weekly the
Tablet (organ of the richer and better-educated <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s) went
further. In its issue of October 31, 1936 it had an article on
religion in <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> by a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> who had recently
travelled in it. He had asked a priest about the report of
secessions, and the priest had said:</p>

<p> "It is true, up to 1930 nearly 1900000 left the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> and,
while about 150000 joined the Protestant and <ent type='NORP'>Orthodox</ent> communities,
the rest are without religion."</p>

<p> The <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> priests so hated their brethren who remained
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> but threw off the yoke of the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> that this man lies
in the latter part of his statement. At the census of 1930 the
National <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> of anti-Papal <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s still had 793385 members,
though even more declared that they had no religion. In fact, there
is no other country in the world in which nearly a million folk
made this formal declaration in the census-paper.</p>

<p> This situation is the key to Papal policy in <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>
and, as <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writers try to defend the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> by asking what
interest the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> had in helping <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> in that country, it has
to be thoroughly understood. There were nearly a million <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s
who refused to recognize the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>; and the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> considers these
"ichismaties" as dangerous and damned as atheists. There were more
than 3000000 Socialists and <ent type='NORP'>Communist</ent>s, since they had polled
1700000 votes at the last election, and there was the most
powerful <ent type='NORP'>Rationalist</ent> body in the world. <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writers boast that
in 1934 a great <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Congress</ent> was held at <ent type='GPE'>Prague</ent> and attended
by 50000 <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s. They do not mention that in 1935 the
Freethinkers held a <ent type='ORG'>Congress</ent> there and it was attended by 40000
members. President <ent type='ORG'>Masaryk</ent>, the idol of the country and the most
respected statesman in Europe, and several of the political and
most of the cultural leaders, including the internationally famous
novelist Karl Capek, were Freethinkers. In no other country in the
world had the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> lost in ten years so high a proportion
of its members; and the loss continued yearly. <ent type='GPE'>Bohemia</ent>, the care of
the Republic, the center of culture and prosperity, was lost to
<ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>. A <ent type='GPE'>Thirlmere</ent> travelling in the country after 1930 would have
said, "The <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> knows that she is doomed."</p>

<p> As the government was deservedly popular and secured for the
people a high and increasing prosperity there was no opportunity
here of repeating the <ent type='NORP'>Spanish</ent> tragedy. The only feasible plan from
the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> angle was to save the <ent type='GPE'>Sudeten</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s at one end of
the Republic and the very backward <ent type='NORP'>Slovak</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s at the other
from what <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> called the corrupting influence of <ent type='GPE'>Prague</ent>. This
coincided with Hitler's policy, though we may admit that the
<ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> did not foresee -- very few people foresaw -- that when
<ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> got these detached on the plea of the self-determination of
peoples and found the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> so cowardly he would grab
the lot and have a magnificent starting-point for his further
advance. But we shall see that the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> was more active than ever
in the second and greater grab.</p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdon
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
9
.
HITLER DUPES THE VATICAN</p>

<p> This general coincidence of the interests of the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> with
those of the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>s is supported by undisputed evidence of
cooperation. The <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writer in the <ent type='ORG'>Irish Independent</ent> whom I
have quoted admitted that the priests interfered in polities,
though in the <ent type='GPE'>Sudeten</ent> provinces the work was left to the laity. The
priests were less ready than those of <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent> to be drawn into the
<ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> spider's web, especially when the <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>n <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> began to
suffer like the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>, but <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>sm spread amongst the laity in
virtue of skilful <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> propaganda, and a local leader was found
in the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Henlein</ent>: the kind of puppet that the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s liked
to find -- a man of poor intelligence and greatly flattered by
being recognized in <ent type='GPE'>Berlin</ent> and promised's high position in the
<ent type='GPE'>Sudeten</ent> provinces when they were "liberated," <ent type='PERSON'>Henlein</ent> and his
colleagues assured their fellow-<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s that the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> had
nothing to fear from <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> rule. He had that promise from <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>. In
<ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent>, they said (quite falsely), Cardinal Faulhaber had provoked
the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> government by his attacks on it. They would not do that in
<ent type='GPE'>Sudeten</ent>land and would not be molested.</p>

<p> To the general public in <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>, to whom the word <ent type='NORP'>Slovak</ent>
meant little more than the name of a tribe in <ent type='GPE'>Abyssinia</ent>, the whole
question turned on the <ent type='GPE'>Sudeten</ent> provinces. To <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> these were only
the pretext of intervention, and a pretext in regard to which, by
promoting a little friction and getting <ent type='PERSON'>Goebbels</ent> to represent this
as resentment of a bloody tyranny of the <ent type='NORP'>Czechs</ent>, he could make out
something of a case. But shearing off this narrow fringe of <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>-speaking towns, which lay outside the <ent type='NORP'>Czech</ent> "Maginot Line," would
not give him <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>, so the anti-<ent type='NORP'>Czech</ent> agitation at the
other end of the Republic, in <ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>, was far more important.
This was overwhelmingly the work of the <ent type='ORG'>Black International</ent>.</p>

<p> The core of the Republic was, as I said, <ent type='ORG'>Bolemia</ent> or <ent type='GPE'>Bohemia</ent>
and <ent type='GPE'>Moravia</ent>, which worked together and reached a high degree of
culture and prosperity. The <ent type='NORP'>Czechs</ent> who inhabited them were as able
and vigorous as the urban populations of <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent>, and, fearing that
the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> wolf would sooner or later quarrel with them, they had a
fine army and at <ent type='ORG'>Skoda</ent> one of the greatest armament-making works in
Europe. But beyond <ent type='GPE'>Moravia</ent>, to the east, the country ran on to the
<ent type='NORP'>Carpathian</ent> Mountains, and from its geographical conditions this
large province remained very backward. This was the land of the
<ent type='NORP'>Slovak</ent>s, and beyond it the country terminated in a still more
backward mountainous area with a <ent type='NORP'>Ruthenian</ent> or <ent type='NORP'>Ukrainian</ent> population.
The <ent type='NORP'>Czechs</ent> might have done well to hand the latter to the
<ent type='NORP'>Ukrainian</ent>s and let <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> civilize it as it had done with so
many border provinces.</p>

<p> <ent type='NORP'>Czechs</ent>, <ent type='NORP'>Slovak</ent>s, and <ent type='NORP'>Ruthenian</ent>s had declared themselves an
independent republic in 1918, when <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent> collapsed, and
<ent type='GPE'>Versailles</ent> had confirmed their position. It was a lively team to
drive, including 6000000 <ent type='NORP'>Czechs</ent>, 3000000 <ent type='NORP'>Slovak</ent>s, 3000000
<ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s, and more than a million <ent type='NORP'>Magyars</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>Ruthenian</ent>s, but as
long as President <ent type='ORG'>Masaryk</ent> held the rein's and pre-<ent type='NORP'>nazi</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> was
friendly the republic made remarkable progress. Its social and
cultural achievements must be read elsewhere. In a land of powerful
minorities there are always men who thrust themselves into the
limelight by shrieking that the ancient culture of a particular
minority is in danger of perishing and they must demand autonomy. </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdon
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
10
.
HITLER DUPES THE VATICAN</p>

<p>They are blind to the changed conditions of a world in which small
national units only excite the cupidity of more powerful neighbors.
The clash, however, only found expression in the melodramatic
fights of politicians until the, <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>s took up the grievances of
the <ent type='GPE'>Sudeten</ent> <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s and the disintegration of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> alarmed
the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent>.</p>

<p> The priests in <ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> had long been associated with the
patriotic movement in that province. The parallel with the
situation in <ent type='GPE'>Ireland</ent> before it was granted Home Rule is close
enough to enable anybody to understand. In <ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>, however, the
patriotic party was actually led by a priest, Father <ent type='PERSON'>Hlinka</ent>, and
was directly associated with Pacelli's policy. It is quite useless
to talk about patriotic priests and the carefulness of the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent>
to avoid politic's, when the most sensational event of the year
1933 in <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> was that the Papal <ent type='PERSON'>Nuncio</ent> was expelled for
just such interference. He had supported the <ent type='NORP'>Slovak</ent> claims in a
letter which was published on August 13, 1933. We shall see later
how the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> in their own interest -- disguised, of course, as a
noble effort to secure peace -- replied to the summons of the
<ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> to help it against the government of <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>, but
the months of agitation over the expulsion of the <ent type='PERSON'>Nuncio</ent> for
political reasons and the great <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> demonstration that
followed in 1934 plainly identified the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> with the priest-controlled <ent type='NORP'>Slovak</ent> movement. In any case we are studying the action
of the <ent type='ORG'>Black International</ent> and need not trouble always to detect
the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> strings that work the clerical puppets.</p>

<p> This clerical <ent type='NORP'>Slovak</ent> movement led in the end to the utter ruin
of <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>. This was after <ent type='GPE'>Munich</ent>, and we need not go fully
into the events which led up to that ignoble surrender. The year
1938 opened with a fair degree of tranquillity in the Republic.
There had been scandals and a serious split in the <ent type='GPE'>Sudeten</ent> body,
and the coalition government was willing to make reasonable
concessions to the <ent type='NORP'>Slovak</ent>s. They were represented by two parties in
<ent type='GPE'>Prague</ent>, the <ent type='NORP'>Slovak</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> party and the <ent type='NORP'>Slovak</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Centralists</ent>. The
capital of the province, <ent type='GPE'>Bratislava</ent>, was a solid city sharing the
culture of <ent type='GPE'>Prague</ent>, and large numbers of its citizens were opposed
to the political priests and their hordes of ignorant peasants, and
wild-eyed mountaineers. An amiable settlement seemed possible, but
this Suited neither the ghouls of <ent type='GPE'>Berlin</ent> nor those of the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent>.
<ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> in February began the series of violent attacks on the
<ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Slovak</ent> government, then headed by <ent type='PERSON'>Benes</ent>, which were to
prepare the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> people for the opening of his aggressive
campaign.</p>

<p> He was still within the framework of <ent type='PERSON'>Mein Kampf</ent>, concerned
only, he said, about the condition of German's outside as well as
inside the <ent type='PERSON'>Reich</ent>. There were 10000000 of them he said, living
under oppression in <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent> and the <ent type='GPE'>Sudeten</ent> provinces. We saw how
he went on to annex <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>, and <ent type='PERSON'>Benes</ent> easily proved that there was
no persecution of <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s in <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>. But Hitler's
extraordinary success, thanks to the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> and the cowardice of
the democracies in taking <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent> without striking a blow most
gravely confirmed him in his plan to take <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> and
broaden his base for a European war.</p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdon
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
11
.
HITLER DUPES THE VATICAN</p>

<p> The <ent type='NORP'>Slovak</ent> Clerical withdrew their support of <ent type='PERSON'>Benes</ent> and began
to press for autonomy, and the <ent type='GPE'>Sudeten</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s again raised their
clamor. It was at this stage (March 14) that <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> gave
an assurance of assistance to the <ent type='NORP'>Czechs</ent> in case they were
attacked. Great <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> gave no pledge. The <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> later said that
they relied on the cooperation of <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> in virtue of their treaty
of mutual defence but this did not contemplate the eventuality of
<ent type='GPE'>France</ent> provoking an <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> attack by going to the aid of a third
power. The sound criticism of <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> at this stage is that its
statesmen could not shake themselves free of their blind anti-Socialist zeal and see that the <ent type='ORG'>Axis</ent> had opened a career of
aggression. A combination in 1938 of <ent type='ORG'>the British</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> fleets
and the armies of <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> might have
spared the world the horrors of the great war. At all events the
leading <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> paper, Le Temps, announced that the government had
given the <ent type='NORP'>Czechs</ent> an assurance of help, and the <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n press told
of a similar assurance from their side; an assurance that, unlike
the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent>, they have always acknowledged and were ready to honor.</p>

<p> <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> at the same date, the middle of May, made one of its
solemn and nauseously hypocritical announcements to the world to
the effect that it had no designs on <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> and only
wanted justice for the 3000000 <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s who lived in it. A month
later <ent type='PERSON'>Henlein</ent> went to see <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent>, and at <ent type='ORG'>Carlsbad</ent>, on
<ent type='NORP'>German</ent> soil, he formulated the demands of the <ent type='GPE'>Sudeten</ent>s. They had,
of course, grown remarkably larger since his interview with <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>,
but this is not the place to repeat in detail the course of events
up to <ent type='GPE'>Munich</ent>. The darkest tragedy was that occupation of the whole
country which was never contemplated at <ent type='GPE'>Munich</ent>, and this is the
tragedy for which the <ent type='ORG'>Black International</ent> was plainly responsible.</p>

<p> Throughout the summer of 1938 the demands of the <ent type='GPE'>Sudeten</ent>
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s grew. The <ent type='NORP'>Czech</ent> government made concession after
concession, but <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> did not want concessions. He wanted refusal
and an excuse to invade. When his troops began in the late summer
to concentrate in the direction of <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> sent
Lord <ent type='PERSON'>Runciman</ent> to find the bases of a compromise. <ent type='PERSON'>Runciman</ent> was one
of those who held that any development was better than an advance
of Socialism and all that he did was to persuade the <ent type='NORP'>Czechs</ent> to talk
nicely to the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> wolf and not think of provoking him. <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent>
helped out his gangster-friend by publishing in his own paper in
<ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> an open letter to <ent type='PERSON'>Runciman</ent> which that apostle of peace
probably took seriously. He assured <ent type='PERSON'>Runciman</ent> that he knew from
conversation with <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> that he had no intention whatever of doing
more than liberate the <ent type='GPE'>Sudeten</ent> fringe with 3000000 <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>s. It
was all part of the sordid plan, but there was still in <ent type='GPE'>England</ent>, or
in the ruling class, a belief that <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> was not as
unscrupulous as <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>.</p>

<p> So <ent type='PERSON'>Chamberlain</ent> went to <ent type='GPE'>Berchtesgaden</ent> and to <ent type='GPE'>Munich</ent> and dragged
<ent type='GPE'>England</ent> into that policy of appeasement which will cost the world
an incalculable number of billions of dollars and millions of
lives, waste of precious wealth, and a load of suffering under
which the planet reels. Had I been capable of weeping I would have
wept at one picture of that ignoble time: <ent type='PERSON'>Chamberlain</ent> stepping out
of his plane at <ent type='GPE'>Croydon</ent> on his return from <ent type='GPE'>Munich</ent>. His face naively
lit with a smile like that of a school-girl who has won an </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdon
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
12
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HITLER DUPES THE VATICAN</p>

<p>unexpected prize, he flourished a scrap of paper before the crowd
and explained that he had Hitler's signature to a promise to keep
the agreement and not further menace the peace of Europe! The
interests of <ent type='ORG'>the Conservative Party</ent> had required that the fate of
an <ent type='GPE'>Empire</ent> Should be entrusted to such a man, and he had had
plenipotentiary power at <ent type='GPE'>Munich</ent>. He had at least the grace to die
when he saw the sequel. The pious <ent type='GPE'>Halifax</ent> still represents the
<ent type='NORP'>British</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Empire</ent>.</p>

<p> Another picture comes to hand. A journalist who was present at
<ent type='GPE'>Munich</ent>, William L. <ent type='ORG'>Shirer</ent>, has just published his impressions
(<ent type='GPE'>Berlin</ent> Diary). He describes <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> walking past him on that
fateful day:</p>

<p> "It was a very curious walk indeed. In the first place it was
very ladylike. Dainty little steps. In the second place every few
steps he cocked his right shoulder nervously, his left leg snapping
up a he did so. I watched him closely as he came back past us. The
same nervous tic. He had ugly black patches under his eyes. He was
in a blue funk. If <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> had called his bluff there
might have been no world-war. At least it would have been fought
under very different conditions. And amongst the shower of
congratulations to <ent type='PERSON'>Chamberlain</ent> on his miserable surrender was a
telegram from Cardinal Hinsley in the name of "the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
archbishops and bishops of <ent type='GPE'>England</ent>."</p>

<p> Chapter III</p>

<p> THE MURDER OF <ent type='ORG'>CZECHO</ent>SLOVAKIA</p>

<p> The <ent type='GPE'>Munich</ent> agreement was that <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> was to have those towns
and districts on the fringe of <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> in which there was
a <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> majority. The self-determination of peoples is an
admirable principle, but in application it needs to be watched
carefully. If either priests or statesmen or, as in the case of
<ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent>, both demand a full birth rate of their people so
that the over-crowded population will ooze over the frontiers into
neighboring countries and multiply there until they become the
majority, as <ent type='NORP'>Mexicans</ent> might in parts of the southern States and
<ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent>ese in parts of the eastern, they have no right whatever to
either autonomy or special privileges. A member of Wilson's staff
at <ent type='GPE'>Versailles</ent> told me how that statesman, baited and exhausted by
the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent>, clinging to his ideal of self-determination and dazed
by, names of Hungarian, <ent type='NORP'>Bulgarian</ent>, <ent type='NORP'>Polish</ent>, etc., towns about which
he knew nothing, was dragged into the blunders of that fateful
treaty. Over-population, deliberately encouraged, was one of the
chief pretexts -- it was in this case not true -- used by the arch-criminals to reconcile their own people to the idea of aggressive
war and to secure the sympathy of muddle-headed humanitarians of
the <ent type='PERSON'>George Lansbury</ent> type abroad. <ent type='ORG'>Lebensraum</ent> ("space to live in")
for the noble <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> people was the cry -- until the time came when
the mask could be abandoned and it was changed to <ent type='ORG'>Grossraum</ent>, which
practically means <ent type='GPE'>Empire</ent>.</p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdon
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
13
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HITLER DUPES THE VATICAN</p>

<p> Since this encouragement of the birth rate was the second
chief point -- the first was the suppression of freedom or
glorification of authority -- on which the policy of the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent>
coincided with that of the <ent type='ORG'>Axis</ent> we shall have to consider it later.
At this stage it thrusts itself upon our notice because it explains
why about one-fifth of the total population of <ent type='NORP'>Czech</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> was
found in the relatively small area of the <ent type='GPE'>Sudeten</ent> provinces and
another fifth in the very backward conditions of <ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>. The
<ent type='NORP'>Czechs</ent> of the large and progressive central region were fully in
line with modern civilization and controlled their birth rate. It
was this prosperous central region that <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> coveted, for he had
now, ind seeing the inertia of the western democracies, gone far
beyond his original idea of uniting all peoples of <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>ic blood
in a powerful empire and securing the <ent type='GPE'>Ukraine</ent> as their granary. He
and <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent>, who had lied to <ent type='PERSON'>Runciman</ent> with all the glibness of
his type, proved this immediately by cynically ignoring the <ent type='GPE'>Munich</ent>
agreement and <ent type='PERSON'>Chamberlain</ent> and robbing <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> of its vital
defensive resources so that he could take it over when the time was
ripe.</p>

<p> The essential evil of the surrender at <ent type='GPE'>Munich</ent> was that in
practice it left to <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> to settle what parts of
<ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> were to be handed over on the sacred principle of
self-determination. In theory this, and all questions arising from
the settlement, were to be decided by representatives of the four
powers. <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> was, of course, ignored as a low-caste nation which
could not expect to sit at table with pure-blooded Nordics" and the
descendants of the <ent type='ORG'>Caesars</ent>; and <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> further
stultified themselves by agreeing to this. They very quickly found
that they had betrayed <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> and, as it proved before
long, the cause of civilization. Hitler's military draftsmen
included in the territory to be ceded the powerful fortifications
and big guns and, as they saw <ent type='PERSON'>Chamberlain</ent> still playing with his
"Scrap of paper", robbed the country of its equipment, air-force,
military resources, and chief industrial enterprises. <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
<ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent> and Hungary seized their opportunity and, like dogs
attacking a mortally wounded deer, tore pieces out of the flanks of
the distressed country, with the cordial approval of their priests.
One of the most sturdy democracies in Europe, with a large and
splendidly equipped army, a great arsenal, and an eagerness to
cooperate with <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, was disarmed.</p>

<p> But <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> hesitated for months to take over the helpless
country. One of the foulest features of this modern imperialism as
compared with its historical predecessors is that, while it mouthed
about the tonic of war and its invincible legions, it
hypocritically denied until the last moment that it had any
imperialist ambitions and covered every move it made with a ragged
mantle of respectable pretensions and mendacious pretexts of law
and order. In this (in <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Abyssinia</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>) it had had
the close cooperation of the <ent type='ORG'>Black International</ent>; the 'moral' force
which professed to have the task of exposing all such immoral
conduct in every part of the world. <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> now found a still more
useful ally in the <ent type='ORG'>Black International</ent>.</p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdon
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
14
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HITLER DUPES THE VATICAN</p>

<p> <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> was crowned <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> on March 12, 1939. This was, as I
said, the day on which the <ent type='NORP'>Jews</ent> were, with terrible loss and
suffering (which he never condemned), expelled from <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>. It was
also the day on which <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> sent a <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> plane to <ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> to
bring to <ent type='GPE'>Berlin</ent> the <ent type='NORP'>Slovak</ent> priest who was to sell <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>
to him for thirty pieces of silver.</p>

<p> One reads in the biography of the new <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> by <ent type='ORG'>Ransom</ent> that
during the week after his coronation <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> was so beset with
problems that he gave only three hours to sleep every night. What
the problems were we do not know, but the problem that was then
agitating the whole civilized world, the problem on the solution of
which the peace of the world depended in the opinion of all
thoughtful men, was not one of them. <ent type='ORG'>Ransom</ent> devotes 100 pages of
his little book to the work of the overburdened <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> that year, but
he never mentions <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>, though it was upon the conduct
of a priest, a prelate (or <ent type='ORG'>monsignore</ent>) of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, a man in a
position of particular interest to the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent>, that the world-crisis mainly depended. It, indeed, depended so vitally that three
days after the Pope's coronation statesmen concluded that a
European war was inevitable. <ent type='PERSON'>Stalin</ent> began that intensive armament
of his people for which the world is now profoundly grateful.
<ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> -- it has since transpired -- began its organization to
meet a <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> attack, drafted the scheme of several costly war-ministers, ordered hundreds of thousands of card-board coffins for
the victims of air-raids and vast hospital spice, and even began in
a quite gentlemanly way to create a war-industry.</p>

<p> <ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>, with its almost illiterate priest-ridden population
was, as I said, the weakness of the <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Slovak</ent> combination, and
now that <ent type='GPE'>Bohemia</ent> had lost a third of its industries and two-thirds
of its coal-mines, this poorer province had risen in importance.
Since <ent type='PERSON'>Benes</ent> had had to fly for his life before the fury of <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>
a blight - in large part a clerical blight -- had fallen upon the
unfortunate land. <ent type='PERSON'>Hacha</ent> had been appointed President and he
surrounded himself with priests and <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> politicians. Democracy
was already dead. On February 10, 1941, <ent type='ORG'>the New York</ent> Times quoted
this passage from the leading <ent type='NORP'>Czech</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> paper.</p>

<p> "There is no <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> in Europe who would shed a tear to see
the collapse of <ent type='NORP'>democratic</ent> political disorder and who would not
sincerely welcome the fall of economic <ent type='NORP'>Liberalism</ent>, which has been
denounced by the Pope's Leading ideologist because it misuses the
working people in favor of a few capitalistic exploiters."</p>

<p> The Pope's leading ideologist in <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> had been engaged for
twenty years in assuring the public that the <ent type='NORP'>democratic</ent>
institutions and economic forms at which the writer jeers are not
merely in accord with the teaching of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> but had actually
been inspired by the great moral theologians centuries ago. We will
consider some time the encyclical of Pius XI, one of the first
fruits of Pacelli's guidance, on which this <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Fascism was
based. It is enough here that, though the above passage was written
two years after the disaster of 1939, the change from the fine old
Cultural order inspired by <ent type='ORG'>Masaryk</ent> began in 1939.</p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdon
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
15
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HITLER DUPES THE VATICAN</p>

<p> <ent type='PERSON'>Hacha</ent> and his colleagues at least realized that it was vital
to keep the three national elements of the State -- <ent type='GPE'>Bohemia</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Moravia</ent>
<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>Ruthenia</ent> -- together, and the priest, Father <ent type='PERSON'>Hlinka</ent>
who was the oracle and leader of the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Slovak</ent>s, agreed. They
wanted, in order to protect their faith from the decay which it
suffered amongst the <ent type='NORP'>Czechs</ent>, some sort of autonomy or Home Rule
while remaining within the national unity. But <ent type='PERSON'>Hlinka</ent>, the mediocre
kind of political priest which such a country would produce, though
an honest man, died in August (1938), urging his followers and his
successor with his last breath to cling to the union. This
successor, Msgr. <ent type='ORG'>Tiszo</ent>, who became well-known in the world-press in
1939 and 1940, was the second Quisling -- the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Seyss-Inquart of <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent> being the first -- in the long line of <ent type='NORP'>Papalist</ent>
traitors who have served the <ent type='ORG'>Axis</ent> during the last three years; and
he was a priest, in fact a <ent type='ORG'>monsignore</ent> -- a rank between a priest
and a bishop in <ent type='ORG'>the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent></ent> -- not a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> layman whose
action might be repudiated, when this was desirable,"by the Black
International.</p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Tiszo</ent> was the son of a <ent type='NORP'>Slovak</ent> peasant who had been taken up by
the <ent type='NORP'>Magyar</ent> bishop of the district and educated for the priest-hood
in Hungarian colleges. At that time, tinder the old <ent type='NORP'>Austro</ent>-Hungarian <ent type='GPE'>Empire</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> was under the control of the <ent type='NORP'>Magyars</ent>.
Whatever may be the truth about his morals -- <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> parents made
serious charges against him in connection with a girls' college in
which he taught for a time -- he identified himself very zealously
with the interests of the Hungarians until their yoke was rejected
by the <ent type='NORP'>Slovak</ent>s in 1918. He then became a patriotic <ent type='NORP'>Slovak</ent> and in
time attached himself to <ent type='PERSON'>Hlinka</ent>. The <ent type='NORP'>Czechs</ent> accused the clerical
epicure -- at least he was far from ascetic -- of chronic political
duplicity, and he certainly duped <ent type='PERSON'>Hlinka</ent>. He succeeded to the
<ent type='NORP'>Slovak</ent> leadership and became Premier of the autonomous province,
and he proceeded to stir up a dangerous demand for separation and
independence. <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> wanted disorder in <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>, the usual
hypocritical pretext for taking it over. <ent type='ORG'>Tiszo</ent> provided it.</p>

<p> <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> knew that he was at last regarded with suspicion and
that <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, if not the western democracies, was very industriously
arming, but he still had faith in their dread of war and their
willingness to accept any sort of plausible excuse for his actions.
His agents got into touch with <ent type='ORG'>Tiszo</ent> and the plot was concocted.
Since the establishment of a virtually <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> government at
<ent type='GPE'>Prague</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Slovak</ent> grievances had relented. <ent type='ORG'>Tiszo</ent> raised the cry of
independence and assured his followers that <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> would prevent
<ent type='GPE'>Prague</ent> from interfering with them. The news reached <ent type='GPE'>Prague</ent>, and
<ent type='PERSON'>Hacha</ent> deposed <ent type='ORG'>Tiszo</ent> from the Premiership and dissolved his cabinet.
<ent type='ORG'>Tiszo</ent>, as Premier, had taken an oath to observe the Constitution,
but such oaths were always open to interpretation by a skilful
theologian. It was rumored that March 15 (1939) was fixed as the
date of the declaration of Independence.</p>

<p> <ent type='GPE'>Prague</ent> sternly resisted, and in the intense agitation of the
country there was certainly some disorder. <ent type='ORG'>Tiszo</ent> appealed to <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>
and, as I said, a plane was sent to bring him to <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent>. There is
an impartial summary of the events in Keesing's Contemporary
Archives (March 18) in which these details may be read. Seyss-Inquart, the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> model of the Quislings, is said to have been </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdon
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
16
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HITLER DUPES THE VATICAN</p>

<p>sent in the plane to fetch <ent type='ORG'>Tiszo</ent> to <ent type='GPE'>Berlin</ent>, where he saw <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> and
<ent type='PERSON'>Ribbentrop</ent>, while the controlled <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> press groaned with stories
of outrages by the <ent type='NORP'>Czechs</ent>, as it would presently groan with charges
against the <ent type='NORP'>Poles</ent>. <ent type='ORG'>Tiszo</ent> telephoned from <ent type='GPE'>Berlin</ent> to his friends that
<ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> promised to support them in a declaration of independence,
and the sordid story entered upon its last chapter. The wolf began
his complaints that the <ent type='NORP'>Czech</ent> lamb was muddying the water for him.</p>

<p> <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>, with that air of a <ent type='NORP'>Persian</ent> monarch which he had now
developed, summoned <ent type='PERSON'>Hacha</ent> to <ent type='GPE'>Berlin</ent>; and, with their usual felicity
of coincidence, the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Hungarian government, which was
equally docile to <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> and to the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>, demanded that the <ent type='NORP'>Czechs</ent>
should give up <ent type='GPE'>Ruthenia</ent>. <ent type='PERSON'>Hacha</ent> was received with military horrors
at <ent type='GPE'>Berlin</ent> at one in the morning, and four hours later (March 15)
<ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> ordered his troops to take over <ent type='GPE'>Bohemia</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Moravia</ent> if <ent type='PERSON'>Hacha</ent>
did not sign away the independence of his country. He would, he
said, if <ent type='PERSON'>Hacha</ent> refused, order 700 bombing planes to raze the noble
city of <ent type='GPE'>Prague</ent> to the ground. The story of greed and treachery was
over. With pathetic gloom <ent type='ORG'>the New York</ent> Times announced "the
twilight of liberty in Central Europe." The world-press except the
<ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent>, which exulted, expressed the gravest anxiety about the
future and had no illusion about the Protectorates which <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>
made of the three sections of the old Republic.</p>

<p> What did the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> think of it? The murder of <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> was a worse crime than the conquest of <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent> or the
annexation of <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>. It was not a question of taking sides in a
civil war or of extending the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> flag to a <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>-speaking
people. It was worse than greed, the seizure of the wealth and
resources of <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>. Careful observers saw it as the first
step in the enslavement of alien peoples in the service of <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent>,
the first move in a European war. But the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> said nothing . . .
Yes, to be sure, he continued to tell the world that peace is a
very beautiful, desirable thing and war is hideous. How any
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> of normal mentality can imagine that these utterances of
the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> taught the world something which it did not know or did
not vividly appreciate one cannot understand; still less how this
message of peace every <ent type='LOC'>East</ent>er and Christmas was consistent with the
summons to the world during the rest of the year to make a bloody
end of Socialism in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Mexico</ent>. Was it necessary for the
<ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> to use the word "bloody"? No one even suggests any other
meaning of his words.</p>

<p> To <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s I am a pariah, a man beyond redemption, a
writer whose corrupt gospel must not be mentioned in the press, yet
I have seen and denounced the drift of the world for the last six
or seven years. The only moralist who has any place in modern life
is the man who does not merely tell it that there is a law of
justice and that peace is precious, but points out which actions
are unjust or effectively threaten the peace of nations. That is
just what <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent>-Pius has never done. Here was an appalling crime,
the shadow of worse things to come, perpetrated in the very first
year of his pontificate and he was dumb. A body of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s
muttering "the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> of Peace" is on exactly the same psychological
level as a crowd of <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>s in the Sports-palast chanting "Heil
<ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>" or of <ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent>s chanting "<ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> Solo": the psychological
level of the performing dog.</p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdon
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
17
.
HITLER DUPES THE VATICAN</p>

<p> Ought we to go further and say that the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> did not condemn
what happened in <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> because he cooperated in it by
instructions to the <ent type='ORG'>Black International</ent> of the <ent type='GPE'>Sudeten</ent>, provinces,
<ent type='GPE'>Prague</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>? It is one of those points which I leave open,
and the reader must please himself. But in the name of common-sense
let no <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> suggest that the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> was so busy, or happenings in
<ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> were so remote and obscure, that little attention
was paid to them at the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent>.</p>

<p> There was during the few years before the war a persistent
rumor in <ent type='GPE'>London</ent> that the government defied the warnings of its own
<ent type='ORG'>Foreign Office</ent>. However that may be, there was no such friction
after <ent type='GPE'>Munich</ent>. After the outbreak of war the Times had indication's
every week of plans that had begun to take shape immediately after
<ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> had cynically violated their <ent type='GPE'>Munich</ent> agreement.
There were plans of new and vast aviation-works; rich mansions and
hotels, colleges in the country were put under contract to take
government departments when war broke out; a body of leading
journalists had a secret consultation with the government. But
these things are now well known. Any statesman who did not see
spurts of blue flame and jets of sulphurous smoke issuing from the
pit after the gross violation of the <ent type='GPE'>Munich</ent> agreement . . . But
there was no such statesman. Did those things escape the notice of
that wonderful intelligence-service of the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> City and the
eagle eye of the new <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>?</p>

<p> To say so would, in view of the terrible specter that rose on
the horizon, be ludicrous even if <ent type='NORP'>Czech</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> were at the other
side of the world. But the question's that arose in <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>
were just of the kind that calls for ecclesiastical intervention.
The <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> has, besides its Secretariat of State, a number of
"congregations", with large staffs, which correspond to the
departments (trade, education, etc.) of ordinary countries. To
these congregation's questions from all parts of the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> world
are not only permitted. They are encouraged, for the business helps
to maintain the Pope's vast revenue and the swarm of <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent>
clerical parasites who fatten in <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>. Some of them must have had
a busy correspondence with <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> since 1918, when the
reaction against <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>n tyranny and the scrularization of the new
state started the disintegration of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>. As I have said, it
lost at least a fourth of its members in ten years. But the
paramount questions were political, especially the question whether
the solid <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>ism of the <ent type='GPE'>Sudeten</ent>s and the <ent type='NORP'>Slovak</ent>s should be
saved from the influence of the anti-Papal government at <ent type='GPE'>Prague</ent> by
securing autonomy or, in the last stage, separation. I will tell
presently how the Pope's <ent type='PERSON'>Nuncio</ent> (ambassador) at <ent type='GPE'>Prague</ent> was expelled
-- an extra-ordinary occurrence in a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> country -- for
publicly supporting the political demands of the <ent type='NORP'>Slovak</ent>s. Was
<ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent>, a thorough student of <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> affairs, likely to take
little notice of these affairs which in any case supremely
concerned <ent type='ORG'>the Secretariat</ent> of State?</p>

<p> Beyond question the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> was following the course of events
with the closest attention, and it would be ridiculous to suppose
such priests as <ent type='PERSON'>Hlinka</ent> and <ent type='ORG'>Tiszo</ent> were not in complete accord with
their higher ecclesiastical authorities and through these with the
<ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent>. The action of the <ent type='PERSON'>Nuncio</ent> sufficiently proves this. Some </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdon
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
18
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HITLER DUPES THE VATICAN</p>

<p>day, when the great-hearted <ent type='NORP'>Czechs</ent> are restored by the civilization
which betrayed them the full truth will be known. Meantime I
venture upon this suggestion of <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> policy. It was uncertain on
the question of the <ent type='GPE'>Sudeten</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s and as in the early days of
<ent type='ORG'>Sinn Fein</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>Ireland</ent>, left the business to laymen. It was far from
clear whether it would be a gain or a loss to transfer a couple of
million <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s, who were entirely free to have their <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
institutions and schools under the <ent type='NORP'>Czechs</ent>, to <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> control. It
would please <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>, but what was the worth of his promises? In
regard to <ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> the policy was clear. The dense mass of ignorant
or illiterate or semi-literate <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>ism must be protected from
<ent type='NORP'>Czech</ent> culture and progress by autonomy or, when this coincided with
Hitler's policy, separation. But whatever one may think of this
speculation the main fact does not share its uncertainty. The Black
International vitally helped <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> in taking the final preparatory
step for his crime against civilization.</p>

<p> Chapter IV</p>

<p> WHY <ent type='GPE'>FRANCE</ent> BETRAYED THE CZECHS</p>

<p> In one of his most important and most carefully prepared
speeches, a vast <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n as well as <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> public
listening on the radio or reading the printed word next day (August
25, 1941), <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>ill deliberately described in these words the
relation of the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> to the <ent type='NORP'>Czechs</ent> in 1938:</p>

<p> "A <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> government deserted their faithful ally and broke a
plighted word in that ally's hour of need.</p>

<p> Note carefully that this was not an attack on the miserable
group of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> weaklings which was called the <ent type='ORG'>Vichy</ent> government.
If it were, we might allow for strong feeling and over-emphasis.
But it was a cold and responsible Statement of what had happened in
the tragic days of <ent type='GPE'>Munich</ent>. At that time <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> were
cordial friends of <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, and the betrayal was softened with vague
phrases or even, since the whole world was still steeped in calumny
against the great <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> civilization, excused on the ground that
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> could not be trusted. In war, as in wine, the truth comes
out. <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> basely deserted its ally. Why?</p>

<p> Military considerations lie outside my many fields of interest
but it can safely be said that they afford no justification of the
action of <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>. Indeed now that we see the supreme <ent type='NORP'>French</ent>
commanders in their true light as priest-ridden mediocrities who
put the interest of their <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> above the interests of their
nation and the dictates of honor we wonder if they did not strain
these military considerations in 1938 in order to avoid an
effective alliance with <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> which the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent>, which sought an
alliance with <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> against <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, would bitterly resent. There
is a fallacy in the plea that events have proved that and war at
that time against <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> would have been disastrous. Neither
<ent type='GPE'>France</ent> (always too selfish to tax itself sufficiently for adequate
defense) nor <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> had the forces they would later develop, but </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdon
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
19
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HITLER DUPES THE VATICAN</p>

<p><ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> also was far short of the power it would deploy in 1941
after being in a position for a year or two to enslave half of
Europe. The Maginot Line was complete. and the <ent type='NORP'>Czechs</ent> had, to the
great profit of the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> Steel Trust -- a similar line, an army
limited in numbers, but of superb quality, and a stanch ally in
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>. If <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> had turned the Maginot Line by invading <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent>
<ent type='ORG'>the British</ent> Fleet would be added to the coalition. The prospect was
more hopeful than in 1939 and 1940 or at any time until <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> was
drawn in.</p>

<p> But can we suppose that <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> at any time before 1940 was
sensitive to the wishes and counsels of the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent>? It was one of
the most irreligious countries in the world, or at least it ran
<ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> close for that title. I have repeatedly quoted <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
admissions that only about six or seven million of its 42000000
people were in any real sense <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s. All its statesmen were,
and had been for more than half a century, Freethinkers (except one
Protestant) and apart from artists and literary men, whose
convictions are not conviction's in an intellectual sense, nearly
all its cultural leaders were skeptics,</p>

<p> We shall study <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> more closely in a later book when we
have to try to understand the monumental treachery of the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
military leaders, but a few points must be discussed here in order
to complete the record of the action of the <ent type='ORG'>Black International</ent> in
preparing the world, whether it realized what it was doing or not,
for the historic crime of the war. In an earlier chapter I
mentioned, incidentally, how in 1937 <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> went -- we will not
say was sent for he made his own policy -- to <ent type='GPE'>Paris</ent> as the Pope's
legate. This was the first time the <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> had sent a <ent type='ORG'>Legate</ent> to
<ent type='GPE'>France</ent> since 1814. All reference-books had continued to describe it
as a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> country, as they do today, and few thought of
explaining this very singular attitude of the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> to it. But we
will return to that latter. <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent>, who hated democracy in general
and <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> in particular, was so very amiable and successful that
on the following <ent type='EVENT'>New Year</ent>'s Day the gifts received by the Premier
and the Minister of Finance, both Freethinkers, included Papal
decorations.</p>

<p> Naturally this was not the beginning of pleasant relations,
but I must give a very summary account of events at this stage. The
Thirty Years' War (say 1884 to 1914) of <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> and the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent>
ended in the truce of 1914-1918, when the close union of all
parties in <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> was demanded, and this led on to such amiable
relations after the war that the very powerful <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Freethought</ent>
Party was never reconstructed.</p>

<p> The new element was <ent type='GPE'>Alsace</ent>-<ent type='PERSON'>Loran</ent>, two solidly <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
provinces which they had taken over from <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent>. At first the
<ent type='NORP'>French</ent> tried to weaken the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> in them by applying their laws
(secularization of schools, marriage, etc.) to them but the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent>
inspired a resentment that alarmed the government. The true state
of <ent type='GPE'>Alsace</ent>-<ent type='PERSON'>Loran</ent> for years after 1918 was not described in the
<ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n and <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> press. It seethed with rebellions feeling,
carefully fostered by its (in <ent type='GPE'>Alsace</ent> at least) <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>-speaking and
<ent type='NORP'>German</ent>-hearted priests. <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, expecting a <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> war of revenge
sooner or later, was scared and had to call in the aid of the </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdon
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
20
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HITLER DUPES THE VATICAN</p>

<p><ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent>; and from the richly organized <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> communities of
<ent type='GPE'>Alsace</ent>-<ent type='PERSON'>Loran</ent>, the clerical zeal spread to north-eastern <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>.
There was, <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s admitted, no flood of conversions, but
the mere fact of the annexation had raised the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>
from a body of 5000000 to a body of about 7000000, and it was
of the highest political importance to be on good terms with the
<ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent>.</p>

<p> So the frivolous folk of <ent type='GPE'>Paris</ent> saw strange things which had,
they thought, been relegated to ancient history; exchange of
representatives at <ent type='GPE'>Paris</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>, the canonization of <ent type='PERSON'>Joan</ent> of Arc,
a Papal <ent type='ORG'>Legate</ent> embracing their very skeptical leaders, and so on.
In 1904 I had attended a huge International <ent type='ORG'>Congress</ent> of
Freethinkers at <ent type='GPE'>Paris</ent> and had on <ent type='LOC'>Sunday</ent> walked in a procession of
200000 while the whole city seemed to cheer us. Twenty years later
I attended another <ent type='ORG'>Freethought</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Congress</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>Paris</ent>. No more than 200
attended the largest meetings, and the city did not take the
slightest interest. An aged ex-Minister who had been in the van of
the anti-clerical struggle form 1890 to 1910 told me that for
political reasons <ent type='ORG'>Freethought</ent> was dead and the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> very much
alive. I was not altogether surprised. Two years earlier I had been
in <ent type='GPE'>Athens</ent>, in fact in <ent type='ORG'>the British</ent> Legation there, when the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>
foreign minister had come with the news of the terrible defeat of
the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>s by the <ent type='NORP'>Turks</ent>. The <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> had been guilty of an act of
treachery of which the older <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> would have been incapable. It
had Supplied the <ent type='NORP'>Turks</ent>, the minister said, with guns, tanks, and
officers against the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>s.</p>

<p> Here I need consider only how the new policy affected the
relations of <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> with <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>. The government had with
the support of the deputies from <ent type='GPE'>Alsace</ent>-<ent type='PERSON'>Loran</ent> and in face of the
violent protests of the Radicals sent an ambassador to <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> and
received a <ent type='PERSON'>Nuncio</ent> at <ent type='GPE'>Paris</ent>. When the Radicals were put in power in
1924 they tried to abolish this arrangement, but the clergy
defeated them again through the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> deputies of <ent type='GPE'>Alsace</ent>-<ent type='PERSON'>Loran</ent>.
From that time the Pope's representative in <ent type='GPE'>Paris</ent> had considerable
influence and there were frequent deals with the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent>. The
royalist movement, which was gaining ground and was mainly
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>, was repeatedly checked by the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> at the request of
the government. For the first time since <ent type='NORP'>Napoleon</ent> <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
writers (<ent type='NORP'>royalists</ent>) made drastic attacks on <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>, accusing it of
traffic with the "blasphemous laicism" of the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> government.
The government had to pay for the Church's services.</p>

<p> One of the return services of the government concerned <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>. In 1933 the Papal <ent type='PERSON'>Nuncio</ent> at <ent type='GPE'>Prague</ent> was, as I said,
expelled by the <ent type='NORP'>Czechs</ent> for political interference in publicly
supporting the <ent type='NORP'>Slovak</ent> movement. The <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> retorted by organizing
a gorgeous festival at <ent type='GPE'>Prague</ent> in honor of the eleventh centenary of
some medieval saint who was supposed to have introduced
<ent type='NORP'>Christianity</ent> into the country, and the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> were used to persuade
their allies, the <ent type='NORP'>Czechs</ent>, to take part and adjust the quarrel over
the <ent type='PERSON'>Nuncio</ent>. The <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> Cardinal Verdier was one of the most
conspicuous figures in the ceremonies.</p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdon
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
21
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HITLER DUPES THE VATICAN</p>

<p> In 1936 the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> signed their pact with <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>. What
<ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent>, who began this year to call repeatedly for war on
<ent type='NORP'>Bolshevism</ent>, thought about it one can imagine, but we may defer that
question. <ent type='ORG'>The Pact</ent> drew <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, and <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> into an
alliance which seemed to be of such importance for the security of
<ent type='GPE'>France</ent> and the peace of Europe that the feelings of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> had
to be disregarded. But in creating all the bitterness that it could
against <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> by a false representation that it persecuted
religion the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> added considerably to the confusion which
distracted <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> attention from the urgent need to increase its
armament. <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Communist</ent>s reacted as one would expect, and the
<ent type='NORP'>royalists</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent>s derived new strength from the disorder.</p>

<p> If we recall that the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> also had representatives of the
most fanatical loyalty in the highest military councils we begin to
understand that element of the perfidy of 1938 which concerns us
here. <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> was morbid and demoralized during several years before
the way, but we did not then imagine that its great soldiers were
convinced that lack of religion was the root of all its troubles
and that <ent type='ORG'>the authority</ent> of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> must be reestablished at any
cost to the nation, even the sacrifice of that honor of which it
was so proud. The final word in 1938 when the <ent type='NORP'>Czechs</ent> called upon
the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> to redeem their pledge, was with the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> heads of
the army and <ent type='ORG'>navy</ent>: Petain, <ent type='ORG'>Weygand</ent>, and <ent type='ORG'>Darlan</ent>. Is it a mere
coincidence that they refused to fight for <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>, which
the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> was not interested in protecting, yet, without any
further large addition to their forces in the intervening year,
decided to fight for <ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent>, in which the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> was passionately
interested? Had <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> already the idea that a <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> so
humiliated and weakened that two priest-ridden old men could make
it fall upon its knees once more might be linked with <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>,
and <ent type='GPE'>Portugal</ent> in a bloc or League of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> powers? We do not
know.</p>

<p> So the <ent type='NORP'>Czechs</ent> were sacrificed to the butchers under whom they
suffer so appallingly today. The <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> complain that <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> did
not support them.</p>

<p> <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> was under no pledge to do so in a contingency of that
nature and had no army to speak of. But it would certainly have
been forced in by public opinion, and its fleet would have been a
powerful support. A <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> author who had exceptional sources of
information told me that the ships were stripped ready for war, as
they had also been during the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> insolence in
<ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>, and groans and curses followed the news of appeasement from
<ent type='GPE'>London</ent>. We were, relatively to Germany's resources, hardly better
prepared in 1939 than in 1938, and the cause in 1938 would have
been far more inspiring, while the aid of <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> was certain.</p>

<p> Msgr. <ent type='ORG'>Tiszo</ent> returned from his treachery in <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> and took
over the petty Protectorate of <ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>. He now showed his complete
dependence on <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Berchtesgaden</ent>. In the summer of 1929 he
drenched <ent type='GPE'>Bratislava</ent>, where many still cherished in secret the
culture of the <ent type='NORP'>Czechs</ent>, with Pacelli's anti-<ent type='NORP'>Bolshevism</ent> and vilified
the great memory of Masarvk. When <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> hypocritically entered
upon a peace-compact with <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Tiszo</ent> again changed his tune. He
sent his cousin as representative of <ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>Moscow</ent> and sent a </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdon
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
22
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HITLER DUPES THE VATICAN</p>

<p>telegram of congratulation to <ent type='PERSON'>Stalin</ent> on his sixtieth birthday. Was
he fully aware (as <ent type='PERSON'>Stalin</ent> was) that the whole pretence of <ent type='NORP'>German</ent>
friendship was one of those tricks by which the invincible legions;
tried to weaken their opponents in advance?</p>

<p> He at all events strangled democracy and freedom on the lines
of the "great encyclical" of Pius XI. The <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Tablet (July 27,
1940) said that the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> Radio, announcing that the blear-eyed
Petain was going to "reconstruct <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> on a <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> basis" by
suppressing liberty and sacrificing prosperity, added with joy that
<ent type='ORG'>Tiszo</ent> had already done this in <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>. Another section of
the earth won for Pacelli's grand plan of a league of theocratic-<ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent> states sworn to extinguish Socialism. But in all these
matters man proposes and <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> disposes. Already it is announced
that <ent type='ORG'>Tiszo</ent> is under the frown of the <ent type='PERSON'>Fuhrer</ent>, and it looks as if he
will join the disillusioned band of Quislings (<ent type='PERSON'>Henlein</ent>, Seyss-Inquart, etc.) who were to be lifted to power by the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> giant.</p>

<p> Chapter V</p>

<p> ON THE EVE OF THE WORLD-TRAGEDY</p>

<p> In the summer of 1938, between the tragedy of <ent type='GPE'>Munich</ent> and that
of <ent type='GPE'>Prague</ent>. <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> went to preside at the Eucharistic <ent type='ORG'>Congress</ent> at
Buda-Pesth. He was housed royally in the royal castle, and the
fleet-less Admiral <ent type='PERSON'>Horthy</ent> had long and very cordial conversations
with him. Hungary is counted a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> country because 64.9 of its
population is described as <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>. It is <ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent>, but as the star
of <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> paled before that of <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>, <ent type='PERSON'>Horthy</ent> had linked the
fortune of the state he despotically controlled with that of
<ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent>. <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> armies could march through Hungary or use its
stretch of the <ent type='LOC'>Danube</ent> whenever they needed. It had been unjustly
treated at <ent type='GPE'>Versailles</ent>, and it looked to <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> as it had earlier
looked to <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent>, to recover for it a large and rich slice of
<ent type='GPE'>Yugo</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Slavia</ent>. It was another of Hitler's bloodless victories and, as
he had the sense not to interfere with Hungary's <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> or
institution's, the <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> was content. It was one more <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
<ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent> state for the grand alliance, and <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> was
already doomed in the eyes of thoughtful observers.</p>

<p> The year 1939 then opened with very grave anxiety in all
<ent type='NORP'>democratic</ent> lands. What would be the feeling of the Black
International outside those countries?</p>

<p> You have only to turn back a few years and compare its feeling
at the time when, at the beginning of 1930, <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> virtually took
over the rule of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>. Then the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> was
disintegrating more rapidly than ever before. The steady loss by
leakage until 1914 had been succeeded, as I showed, by a
catastrophic loss of between 50000000 and 100000000 in about
ten years. <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, the principal source of the new corroding force,
had made good and was preparing to offer to the world something
which <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> had always declared impossible: a great civilization
built without the least religious inspiration, for no one questions</p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdon
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
23
.
HITLER DUPES THE VATICAN</p>

<p>that the constructive class in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> was entirely atheistic.
Without anything that could justly be called persecution of
religion this class had communicated its atheism to something like
100000000 people within its own frontiers, won tens of millions
in <ent type='GPE'>China</ent> and even <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> Indo-<ent type='GPE'>China</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Siam</ent>, and crossed the
<ent type='LOC'>Pacific</ent> and devastated the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> from <ent type='GPE'>Mexico</ent> to <ent type='GPE'>Patagonia</ent>. The
same influence had pervaded Europe and had in <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> and the
southern half of the continent detached tens of millions of
Catholic's from the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>. I have given the figures and the
evidence.</p>

<p> Such had been the situation and the outlook of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> in
1929. In the ten years of Pacelli's tenure of office as Secretary
of State there had been a dramatic change. The triumphant spread of
<ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n irreligion had been completely arrested, and that country
was isolated by a great wall of international hatred and slander.
<ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent> were again prostrate at the feet of the priests. We
will not say that it did not matter two pins to the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent> whether
the men who went to church and sent their children to <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
schools once more were blessing or cursing the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> in their
hearts as long as they obeyed, but we may certainly say that it was
regarded by the <ent type='ORG'>Black International</ent> as a magnificent triumph that
the tens of millions of apostates dare not open their lips and that
their children were all handed over to the priest. <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>
were once more <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> countries. <ent type='GPE'>Portugal</ent> and Hungary were in
line, and, while <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent>, resisting both threats and blandishments,
was still a very unsatisfactory ally, it had at least destroyed the
Socialist-<ent type='NORP'>Communist</ent> force that had made havoc in the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>. The
proud anti-<ent type='NORP'>Papalism</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> was in the dust, and <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>
was on cordial terms with the <ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent>. The rot (liberation?) had
been stopped in <ent type='LOC'><ent type='LOC'>South</ent> <ent type='GPE'>America</ent></ent>, which presented an almost unbroken
compulsory-<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> front, and in the Far <ent type='LOC'>East</ent> the alliance with
<ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent> opened up a golden prospect of a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> monopoly of
missions in the one-fourth of the earth over which the flag of the
Rising <ent type='LOC'>Sun</ent> was expected to wave.</p>

<p> That -- again I am just summarizing facts of which I have
given full evidence -- was the situation in the Spring of 1939 when
<ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> reaped his reward and became <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>; and <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
literature assures you that he piously hated limelight and desired
only to be an obscure parish priest moving amongst the obscure
poor! Our newspapers have today "experts on religion" as "<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>
editors" just as they have political, financial, or international
experts. These men never enlarge on this most spectacular religious
development since the Reformation. In a single generation the
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> lost and regained at least one-third of its members.
These "experts on religion" would probably be startled and
incredulous if you told them that, though I have proved it line by
line. They are too busy talking nonsense about the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>
or describing parochial triumphs and quarrels.</p>

<p> But why does not the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> journalist or orator dilate on
this dramatic development? In the first place because he does not
wish to call attention to or acknowledge the Stupendous losses of
the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> from 1919 to 1929, which he has always denied. He
prefers the miracle of the tail wagging the dog; the theory that
small minorities of wicked men somehow get power in spite of rich </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdon
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
24
.
HITLER DUPES THE VATICAN</p>

<p>and formidable bodies of priests, all the conservative elements,
and the overwhelming majority of the nation! That explains <ent type='GPE'>Mexico</ent>
and <ent type='LOC'><ent type='LOC'>South</ent> <ent type='GPE'>America</ent></ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Vienna</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>. Exact -- that is to say
truthful -- analysis is as rare in this field as decency is amongst
<ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>s or <ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent>s.</p>

<p> In the second place, and chiefly, he very certainly does not
want to draw attention to the fact that whatever losses the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>
sustained from 1919 to 1929 occurred in an atmosphere of free
discussion while the gains were won entirely by coercion and
violence. That sounds like one of those generalizations which
suppress exceptions and reserves for the sake of strength. It is
not. It is an accurate generalization of facts which we have now
seen and it requires no qualification whatever. The only apparent
exception is <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>, but the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> was always small in
that country so that its losses are a slender element in the total;
and it was more <ent type='NORP'>Polish</ent> than <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>n and entirely pledged, as we
shall see, to the war against the <ent type='NORP'>Soviet</ent>s, so that it suffered on
political grounds. In <ent type='GPE'>Mexico</ent> the losses preceded the application of
the laws (passed long before) which punished political activity on
the part of the clergy and do not make an exception to my general
statement. But the great losses, the losses in ten's of millions,
in <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>, and <ent type='LOC'>South</ent>
<ent type='GPE'>America</ent> were the result of free discussion and the enlightenment of
the people.</p>

<p> From 1929, when <ent type='PERSON'>Mussolini</ent> made his infamous compact with the
<ent type='GPE'>Vatican</ent>, onward the area of free discussion has been steadily
reduced, and in each country in which freedom and democracy have
been replaced by the tyranny of Fascism the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> has recovered
ground. The only exception to this is <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent>, and it is not an
exception in principle because, though the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> was not here in
alliance with violence this was only because its offer of alliance
was spurned. Let us understand clearly what happened. We are not
asked to believe that the 30000000 apostates of <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>,
for instance, have become once more <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s in their conviction
and affections, any more than the 10000000 apostates under the
<ent type='ORG'>Vichy</ent> government have. They probably in their own minds curse the
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> more bitterly than ever. But all organizations and
literature which criticized the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> and told people the truth
about its history and its real aims were suppressed, and all
children were compelled to receive religious lessons and breathe a
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> atmosphere. The spread of the revolt was thus drastically
checked and the people were treated as <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s and subjects of
Canon Law. The <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> considered that it had recovered its ground.</p>

<p> This recovery by coercion had to be affected in every case by
an alliance with the secular powers. The <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> had never known any
other means of regaining lost masses except by alliance, for mutual
profit, with tyranny and violence, and it now found that, by an
extraordinary piece of good fortune for itself, the secular powers
which had formerly bludgeoned its rebels for it and seemed to have
lost forever the power to do so, recovered the use of the whip and
the firing squad. The Church's recovery in the last ten years does
not imply any genius in the person of its guide, <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent>-Pius. The
reaction against Communism began long before he became Secretary of
State. He had only to link the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> with the powers of darkness </p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdon
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
25
.
HITLER DUPES THE VATICAN</p>

<p>which gathered strength in his time, and this was no new discovery
of ecclesiastical statesmanship. That is why in the preceding books
I have given a good deal of historical information. Without it you
cannot fully understand the contemporary situation.</p>

<p> So the <ent type='ORG'>Black International</ent> pledged the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> to a policy of
violence and tyranny, since this was the only possible way in which
it could recover the ground it had lost. If there is one real
miracle about the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> it is the loyalty of the normal
educated <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> layman to his clergy. Very large numbers of the
faithful are of the type that tells you that it "never reads the
paper's" but I am thinking of the men who read their daily and
discuss its contents just as you do. They read one year of <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>
passing under the combined rule of Fascism and the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> and the
violent suppression of all Socialist, <ent type='NORP'>Communist</ent>, <ent type='NORP'>Rationalist</ent>, and
any other literature that caters to non-<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s. A few years
later it is <ent type='LOC'><ent type='LOC'>South</ent> <ent type='GPE'>America</ent></ent>, then <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>, then <ent type='GPE'>Austria</ent>, then <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>. During all these years they are reading books or articles
by <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writers who assure <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> that their <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> is the
ideal champion of freedom and democracy, and they know that in
these countries where <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>Fascist</ent> authorities have combined
millions -- they could easily find that it is tens of millions --
of men and women have been robbed of the kind of freedom they
treasure most and bullied into conformity with what they regard as
false. They know this much at least, however much the press and
their priests conspire to conceal the imprisonment of tens of
thousands and the groans of tortured men in the jails. Does your
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> friend really agree with his priest that this complete
suppression of free discussion is necessary to guard the faith, and
that million's of sullen, reluctant, bitter-hearted folk driven
into submission by violence are a gain to it or to <ent type='EVENT'>the World</ent>?</p>

<p> There is another feature of this on which I have as yet made
no comment. The last ten years have witnessed not only the
appearance of a vast amount of tyranny, torture, and bloodshed, but
also a general degradation of character in which all sense of
honor, truthfulness, and manliness seems to have been lost.
Agreements between nations have become as cynical as they were in
the days of Caesar Borgia and <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> Leo X. more than fifty such
international agreements, treaties, pacts, etc., have been solemnly
signed and sealed in the last twenty years, and tossed aside like
broken toy's a few years later. Statesmen must now sign such pacts
in the spirit in which <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> augurs once winked at each other over
the altars. To deceive another state is a diplomatic ideal. No
means to gain the end of a state -- from castor-oil to opium, from
prostitution to castration -- is too foul to be used. Fluency in
lying is almost the first qualification for office; and the men who
talk most about honor are completely destitute of any sense of it.</p>

<p> I would ask the reader to reflect here very carefully.
Certainly not the whole of civilization is thus degraded. Your
nation and mine -- <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> and Great <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> -- have many faults,
but we should justly resent the application of this description to
them. Today we may add <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>; and there are <ent type='GPE'>Sweden</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Denmark</ent>,
<ent type='GPE'>Norway</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Switzerland</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Turkey</ent>, and many countries. In fact, is it not
the literal truth that it is only the allies of the Black
</p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdon
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
26
.
HITLER DUPES THE VATICAN</p>

<p>International that have thus degraded and debauched the standard of
personal and collective life? Let the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> who finds a triumph
of his <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> in the last ten years reflect on that. It is part of
the price that the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> has had to pay.</p>

<p> And the greater price was still to come. <ent type='PERSON'>Pacelli</ent> had, through
the local hierarchies at least, blessed war, in <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Abyssinia</ent>,
and <ent type='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>. He was still in 1939 alternating between
beautiful praise of peace and demands of war upon <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> and
<ent type='GPE'>Mexico</ent>. We need not linger to wonder how far he realized what he
had done with his alliances, but all the world now knows it. He had
helped to set the stage for the vilest and bloodiest war in
history. He had helped and courted the three powers which were
pledged to launch this war, and for the most sordid greed that ever
moved an army. What did Pius XII and his <ent type='ORG'>Black International</ent> do
when the hellish bugles sounded and the black flag was unfurled?</p>

<div> **** ****</div>

<p> Reproducible <ent type='ORG'>Electronic Publishing</ent> can defeat censorship.</p>

<p> The <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom is a collection of the most thoughtful,
scholarly and factual books. These computer books are reprints of
suppressed books and will cover <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>n and world history; the
<ent type='ORG'>Biographies</ent> and writings of famous persons, and especially of our
nations Founding Fathers. They will include philosophy and
religion. all these subjects, and more, will be made available to
the public in electronic form, easily copied and distributed, so
that <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> can again become what its Founders intended --</p>

<p> The Free Market-Place of Ideas.</p>

<p> The <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdom is always looking for more of these old,
hidden, suppressed and forgotten books that contain needed facts
and information for today. If you have such books please contact
us, we need to give them back to <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>.</p>

<div> **** ****</div>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>Bank</ent> of Wisdon
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
27
</p></xml>