PENDING THE REPLY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 91, 19 April 1939, Page 8

PENDING THE REPLY

For the moment there is a comparative lull in the more striking type of news of the international situation. Herr Hitler, according to an official communique from Berlin, will not announce his reply to President Roosevelt's momentous appeal until Friday, April 28, when a special meeting of the Reichstag will be held to hear what he has to say. About Signor Mussolini's intentions the news conflicts. One message states that the Duce will reply within a week, but a later one, citing a "high Fascist official" as authority, declares that he will ignore President Roosevelt's cablegram and leave it to Herr Hitler to reply for both Italy and Germany. What will be the nature of the reply, joint or several as it may be, is the subject of rumour, but nothing is certain. Herr Hitler himself is said to have gone into retreat at Berchtesgaden, his mountain home in the Bavarian Alps, there to meditate and, if the psychological interpretation of his character is correct, to await inspiration. Like Socrates and others, the Fuhrer is said to possess the daemonic temperament and to be moved by! supernatural influences. However that may be, on his reply the issue of peace or war may rest. The British Prime Minister addressed the House of Commons yesterday, but, so far as can be gathered from references coming to hand as we write, did not throw very much additional light on the situation. Meanwhile, military and naval movements in different quarters continue. The German fleet, numbering forty vessels, has left its bases in Germany for the Spanish cruise already announced. It is believed that this will include a visit to the waters of the Straits of Gibraltar, which it is reported French warships are already patrolling, while a French fleet, including two battleships, is lying at Gibraltar. It is also stated that almost the entire British Mediterranean Fleet is at Malta. The emergence into the news of these naval movements may be designed to indicate that the democratic Powers are on the alert against any sudden development. Tangier, at the mouth of the Straits of Gibraltar, situated in a neutral, international zone, is mentioned as one possible objective. At the other outlet of the Mediterranean in the Suez Canal it is stated that anti-aircraft batteries and coastal defence artillery have been mounted at Port Said and in the Canal Zone, while the western frontier of Egypt has been heavily reinforced. These ! movements need not be taken as provocative; they are the ordinary [precautionary measures adopted in itimes of acute international tension. It is hardly likely that serious emergencies will arise before Herr Hitler makes his reply to President Roosevelt nine days hence, but until then there is little prospect of relief from suspense.