ASTOUNDED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 247, 19 October 1939, Page 7

ASTOUNDED.

WORLD REACTION

Fuehrer's Breach Of Solemn

Pledges.

1 MUNICH VIOLATION. British Official Wireless. RUGBY, October 18. Dealing in his White Paper with the factors forming the situation which led directly to the outbreak of war, Sir Nevile Henderson says: "The true background to the events of August, 1939, was the occupation of Prague on March 15 of this year, and the callous destruction of the hard-won liberty of a free and independent people. This act by Hitler was a deliberate violation of the Munich Agreement which he had signed not six months before."

Typical of the person with whom Sir Nevile had to deal is the Ambassador's comment on Hitler's attitude to the world's condemnation of this act of brigandage.

"There is some surprising reason to believe that Hitler himself was disagreeably and literally astonished at the reaction in Britain and the world generally which was provoked by the occupation of Prague, and his breach of faith with Mr. Chamberlain," Sir Nevile continues. "But while he may have realised his tactical mistake, it did not deter him from prosecuting his further designs."

The same attitude was manifest in one of the five interviews Sir Nevile Henderson had with Hitler during the last few days before the war. when the Ambassador remarked that it was Hitler who was ungenerous to the Poles, in view of the advantages which the treaty with Marshal Pilsudski had brought. Hitler denied that' the treaty had ever been of any benefit to Germany, and asserted that it had been unpopular with his people.

"It was a remark typical of Hitler's capacity to ignore everything which he might have said or promised, or might have done in the past, as soon as it became contrary to his views for the present or the future," Sir Nevile states.

Much interest attaches to his disclosure that as early as the beginning of the year the Ambassador reported to the Foreign Secretary, Viscount Halifax, that Germany's immediate objectives were Danzig and Memel. Hitler thought it would not add much to the general execration if he settled these problems simultaneously with Prague.

Therefore the Lithuanian Government was forced to surrender Memel, and von Ribbentrop dictated to the Pettish Ambassador the terms Hitler wished to impose on Poland.