GERMAN PEACE OFFENSIVE

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23080, 24 July 1940, Page 9

GERMAN PEACE OFFENSIVE

BRITAIN URGED TO

SEE REASON

UTTER DESTRUCTION THE

ALTERNATIVE

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT.)

(Recei\ ed July 23, 10 p.m.)

LONDON, July 22,

The German wireless launched an extensive peace offensive repeatedly urging Britain to accept Herr Hitler’s appeal to reason.

All speakers emphasised that this' was Britain’s last chance to save herself. If the Fuehrer was forced to do what he did not want to do, his order for the utter destruction of England would be irrevocably given. A British Official Wireless message says that Germany is basing her propaganda on the British reaction to Herr Hitler’s speech on the entirely false premise that the war-mongering British Government has withheld the contents of the speech from the Brjtish public. This is quite untrue as the following statistics show.

- On the night of the speech the British Broadcasting Corporation devoted six minutes or 1500 words in its 9 p.m. news bulletin to a summary of what the Fuehrer said. The next morning

the six leading British newspapers, “The Times,” the “Daily Telegraph,” the “News-Chronicle,”' the “Daily Herald,” the “Manchester Guardian,” and the “Daily Mail” each gave it more than two columns and among them devoted no less than eight and a half metre oolumns of newsprint to their summaries. In addition all newspapers carried long .comment. As a result England from end to end knows all about it.

MORE GIFTS TO BRITAIN

MONEY RAISED IN

COLONIES

(BBITISB OFFICIAL WIEELESS.)

RUGBY, July 22,

Among the many generous gifts recently received from all quarters of the British Empire for the promotion of the war effort is a silver cigarette box, which was handed on Monday by the Governor of Mauritius (Sir Bede Clifford) to Mr Churchill. It was presented to the wardroom of H.M.S. Mauritius by the people of the colony.

The box contained two cheques, one of £II,OOO for the purchase of a seaplane for the ship, and the other of £150,000, subscribed by the colony as a gift to Britain for the prosecution of the war.

In making the presentation, Sir Bede Clifford said that a good part of the money subscribed was the gift of people of French descent, who were unshaken in their loyalty to the Allied cause and their faith in its ultimate triumph. The Maharaja of Gondal has given Britain one lakh of rupees (£7500), to be devoted to helping evacuated children. The sum of £IOOO will be devoted to meeting the needs of children evacuated from the Channel Islands, while the remainder will be used to meet the needs of children from other areas.

The sum of £7500 has been contributed by the people of Sind (India) to purchase a fighter aircraft for the Royal Air Force. A further sum of £1250 has been collected by the Cyprus “Post” for a Cyprus fighter aeroplane fund from its readers.

A second instalment of £IO,OOO has been received from a Kenya Central War Fund.

MARSHAL PETAIN’S

GOVERNMENT

HYDE'•PARK, July 22.

The former American Ambassador to France (Mr William Bullitt) issued the following statement after a conference with Mr Roosevelt:

“There is no question of the recognition of the Retain Government. Our relations with that Government already exist and no actions have been taken to break them off. There is no such question so far as I know.”

“STATESMAN’S YEAR-BOOK’’

The “Statesman’s Year-Book,” 1940, a copy of which has just been received from the publishers, makes a welcome appearance in times when reliable reference books are. becoming steadily fewer. In war time even more than in periods of peace, political, statistical, and economic information about the countries of the world is requisite for a proper appreciation of international affairs, and this year’s issue of the “Statesman’s Year-Book” has obviously been at pains to secure the latest and most reliable information.

The book is a complete picture of the countries of the world as at March 31, 1940, and although much of its contents has only recently been made out-of-date by events in Europe, it will remain a valuable record of European affairs up to the beginning' of the German offensive.

" Among the more interesting features of this year’s issue is a map of Soviet Russia containing territorial changes effected up to April, 1940. v