Der Fuehrer - Hitler's Rise to Power (1944) - Heiden

710 DER FUEHRERfound comfort in the thought that neither Germany nor the other powerscould 'take upon themselves the incredible burden which an armamentrace would bring in its train amidst the present crisis.'Yes, according to the laws of economic reason a world armament racewas impossible; and even Germany seemed to admit this. On March 22,1934, the German government quite candidly published its budget. Itappeared that Germany's armaments expenditures were being increasedby 352,000,000 marks, or about fifty per cent; and those who stillbelieved in the authority of the Versailles Treaty which forbade thesearmaments were horrified. In fact, what these figures announced wasrearmament in a moderate degree approved long ago by England's andItaly's diplomatic notes; and Germany could still point out that of all thegreat powers she was still the only one which was spending less ondefense than before 1914. About that time the French government askedits Parliament for extraordinary armaments credits to the amount ofthree billion francs (in addition to the current expenses); the UnitedStates and Great Britain decided to bring their navies up to the strengthallowed in the Washington Agreement; the British air fleet was increased;the gigantic Russian armaments, never denied by Russiaherself, yet not believed in by many at that time, were a miraculouseffort of which the efficacy was later confirmed by events. Thus, thearmaments race de Brocqueville feared was under way, although stillslow and hesitating. The immediate cause of this race was, in at leastsome measure, the indisputable armaments of the National Socialistgovernment in Germany, which, for its part, complained bitterly that thearmaments of the rest of the world forced it to arm against its will.While publishing its own armaments budget with seeming honesty, itsuggested that these figures expressed a thrifty effort, consistent withthe laws of economic reason; the figures might still increase somewhatwhen the three-hundred-thousand-man army was ready and began totrain; but the whole German armaments experiment seemed to beremaining within tolerable limits.And this was no small comfort to the leaders of British foreign policywhen they tried, through their bilateral conversations, to find out thereal situation on the European Continent. Captain Anthony