NAZI RUTHLESSNESS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 22, 26 January 1940, Page 7

NAZI RUTHLESSNESS

BARBARITIES IN POLAND

HITLER SPEECHES RECALLED

(British Official Wireless.)

(Received January 26, 11.45 a.m.) -■ RUGBY, January 25.

Stories to which British newspapers have given considerable prominence in the last few days of the ruthless methods of the Nazi representatives with the German forces occupying Poland throw a somewhat lurid light upon tomorrow's anniversary of the signature of the German-Polish agreement in 1934. These stories, most of which emanate from Vatican sources, would appear to have created as great an impression in the United States and in other countries as in Britain.

An editorial in the "New York Times" says: "It seems clear by now that Germany is trying to exterminate the whole people of Poland, which is apparently to be Germany's 'lebensraum.' Its inhabitants are to be liquidated to make room for Nazi colonists."

This verdict by a great neutral newspaper recalls by violence of contrast the words used by Herr Hitler in the Reighstag in May, 1933, when he said: "Our boundless loye for and loyalty to our national traditions makes us understand the national rights of others, and we desire from the bottom of our hearts to live with them in peace and friendship. We therefore have no use for the idea of Germanisation. The mentality of the past > century which made our rulers believe they could make Germans out of Poles : and Frenchmen is completely foreign j Ito us." FORGOTTEN WORDS. A year later, in June, 1934, and again in the Reichstag, Herr Hitler said: "Germans and Poles will have to learn to accept the fact of each other's existence. Hence it is more, sensible to regulate this state of affairs, which the last thousand years has not been able to remove and the next thousand years will not remove either, in such a way that the highest possible profit will accrue from it to both nations. Whatever the differences between the two countries in the future may be, the catastrophic effects of an attempt to remove them through warlike actions would far outweigh any possible advantage gained." Those were wise words which, although they have been forgotten by Herr Hitler,' have not been forgotten elsewhere. Other speeches of Herr Hitler's are also recalled in which he gave pledges to German-Polish friendship. In January, 1937, in the Reichstag, he declared, "True statesmanship will not disregard realities but will give them attention. The Polish people and the Polish State have become a reality"; and as late as September, 1938, in the Sportpalast: "We realise that here are two peoples which must live side by side. A State with a population of 33,000,000 will always seek access to the sea. A way to understanding has therefore to be found. It has been found, and it will be continuously further developed." ] , SHOOTING OF CHILDREN. But the way of understanding which he so often and so eloquently proclaimed was abandoned by Herr Hitler. He. chose another way. It is a sufficient commentary on that other way that on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the German-Polish agreement Mr. Chamberlain had to reply affirmatively in the House of Commons when he was asked if his attention had been called to the shooting of children in Poland by Germans. Mr. Chamberlain said: "The report of the execution of 136 students, some of whom are said, to be as young as 12 or 13 years old, was contained in a memorandum on conditions in German-occu-pied Poland communicated by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the British Ambassador."