ONE MORE "GREAT DAY"

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 70, 20 September 1939, Page 10

ONE MORE "GREAT DAY"

LONDON COMMENT

THE VALUE OF WORDS

EARLIER SPEECHES

RECALLED

(British Official Wireless.)

(Received September 20, 2.15 p.m.)

RUGBY, September 19

Herr Hitler's speech at Danzig followed the now familiar lines of the speeches he delivered on each succeeding day of "liberation" achieved by the enslavement of another people in defiance of treaty obligations and his own earlier pledges. Once more it has been' the "greatest day of his life."

Commentators in London ,can find little interest in the speech, so true does it run to type. By his contemptuous estimate of public intelligence in "Mem Kampf," Herr Hitler had already prepared the world for what would otherwise excite some surprise—his co/nplete indifference to the observance of any kind of consistency. It is again clear that the •words have no meaning of value to him beyond the immediate transitory purpose they serve in the game of political chicanery. In a typical passage today he dated from the death of Marshal Pilsudski the deterioration in GermanPolish relations and said: "It was possible for us only with difficulty to look on while a German minority was barbarously ill-treated. A world which is always shaken to its depths when a Polish Jew who has recently emigrated to Germany is deported, remained dumb in the face of this illtreatment." The obvious retort which occurs to many here is that the world remained dumb in the face of this illtreatment for the very good reason that from the time of Pilsudski's death in May, 1935, until this spring Herr Hitler represented nis relations with Polan: 1 rs excellent.

No v/ord is said by Germany of the maltreatment of Germans in Poland. This is how Herr Hitler himseif described his friendship for Poland in the Reichstag on May 21, 1935: "We recognise the Polish State as the home of a great patriotic nation with the understanding and cordial friendship of candid Nationalists." After three years, in the Reichstag on February 20, 1938, he could still say: "In the fifth year which follows the coming into force of the first great international convention concluded by the Reich, we state with genuine admiration that our relations with.that State, with which we had perhaps the greatest antagonism, are not only characterised by a detente but that in the course of past years these relations have resulted in a more and more friendly drawing together. The value of this was questioned by many at the time, but it has now passed the test, and I may well

say that, since the League of Nations ceased its continuous efforts at disturbances in Danzig ana appointed as the new Commissioner a man of personality this most dangerous place for peace in Europe has entirely lost its menacing significance. The Polish State respects national conditions in this country and Germany respects Polish rights. It was possible to find a way to an understanding which, emanating from Danzig in spite of the assertions of many mischief makers, has succeeded in removing all friction between Germany and Poland and made it possible to work together in true amity." MORE QUOTATIONS. Six months later and only a year ago at a sports rally in September, 1938, there was still no word of maltreatment —"we realise-that there are two nations which must live side by side and neither of which is in a position to eliminate the other. A State with 33,000,000 inhabitants will always strive to have an outlet to the sea. It is therefore necessary to find a way to understanding. This has been found and will be consolidated. This was really s a peaceful action which was of more worth than .the whole babbling at the palace of the League of Nations at Geneva." So Herr Hitler, for so long as a victim' had to be lulled into false security and the world deceived. Herr Hitler also affected surprise at the unwillingness of Polish statesmen to walk into the trap they had seen baited too often. Referring to the proposals he made in the spring to the Polish Government Herr Hitler declared: "I do not know in what state of mind the Polish Government could have been to reject such proposals." It is not so difficult to enlighten Herr Hitler's perplexity, because the answer is that the Polish Government had before their eyes the shameful betrayal of the solemn assurances given by the German Chancellor at Munich. They knew these demands were only a preliminary to further exactions. If Herr Hitler had wished to inspire confidence in his word he should have been less reckless with his earlier promises. "Germany has no further territorial ambitions in Europe" was an undertaking which had been broken too flagrantly and too often. Just as the Polish Government, which had done its best for six years to reach and maintain an understanding with Nazi Germany on the basis of good faith, was faced at the last with the realisation that it had no choice but to capitulate or to fight, so neither Great Britain nor France, nor any other country, is to be deceived by fresh assurances or fresh promises or fresh renunciations which a foresworn Nazi Chancellor may make.,