NAZI "BOMPHLETS"

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 30, 3 August 1940, Page 11

NAZI "BOMPHLETS"

HITLER'S PEACE SPEECH

DROPPED IN ENGLAND

SALE FOR RED CROSS

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.)

(Received August 3, 9 a.m.) LONDON, August 2,

German planes late last night dropped over the south-east and south-west of England thousands of leaflets containing Hitler's speech in the Reichstag on July 19. The leaflets were apparently enclosed in large brown-paper parcels which opened some distance from the ground. They bore a complete English translation of Hitler's speech, under the heading "A last appeal to reason by Adolf Hitler," and suggested that the British public had no knowledge of the speech.

Police and members of A.R.P. squads, using torches, scoured the district and picked up as many of the leaflets as possible. One warden who collected copies said: "I am taking these to the factory, and hope to sell them for a shilling and give the money to the Red Cross." Leaflets were also showered over Welsh areas, falling into streams, fields, and roads. (Daventry Broadcast.) LONDON, August 2. In several districts today in this country people have been busily collecting the leaflets dropped last night by German planes. Most of them were picked up during the night by police and air-raid wardens, and there has been a lot of competition between people who wanted them as souvenirs. At least one town has been selling them in aid of the Red Cross, so once again the Germans have unconsciously helped our war effort.

Incidentally, the containers of incendiary bombs are made of aluminium and they have not been wasted.

The only snag about the leaflets is that there is nothing new in them to encourage people .to buy them- They contain Hitler's last speech to the Reichstag and suggestions that the British public have been told nothing about it. In fact, the speech was extensively reported in this country when Hitler made it, and we know all about Hitler's previous declarations as well. This, week an illustrated paper publishes extracts from them with typical photos of the Fuhrer in full blast. The first extract is from the speech of March 12, 1936, just after German troops had marched back into the Rhineland, when he said that Germany had no intention of attacking France, Czecho-slovakia, or Poland. The second speech quoted was made on September 26, 1938, when he said: "This is the last territorial claim that I have to make in Europe," and added: "We do not want any Czechs." The third speech was on August 31 last year, only nine hours before the invasion of Poland. It contained the words: "It is a lie when the outside world says we only try to carry out revision by pressure. Neutral States are assured of their neutrality. ... I have declared that the frontier between France and Germany is a final one."