HITLER DISAPPOINTED

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 October 1939, Page 7

HITLER DISAPPOINTED

FIRM STAND TAKEN BY BRITAIN NAZIS STU .1 HOPING FOR PEACE [BY CABLE —PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.] LONDON, October 15. The Berlin correspondent of the Danish newspaper, Politiken,” reports the Reich Chancellery as saying that the war against Britain is the greatest disappointment of Herr Hitler’s life. The Fuehrer is calling conference after conference. He was pale and unshaven, and had scarcely time to change his clothes yesterday. At night he left the conference room in a very angry mood. The General Staff now wants to end the war as early as possible, as a long blockade does not fit in with their calculations. : The German radio indirectly admitted that Mr. Chamberlain’s answer had made a great impression and was being discussed everywhere in Germany. The Nazis are now concentrating bn seeking the utmost aid from Russia, though they are still hoping that the way to peace may be found.

BRITISH PRESS COMMENTS. LONDON, October 15. The British morning papers deal with the German reactions to Mr Chamberlain’s speech. The “News-Chronicle,” commenting on the Nazi official statement that the speech is “an insult to Germany,” and that Britain’s object is to “destroy the German people,” asks why, if this be so, free publication of the speech was held up in Germany, and whether it is customary to suppress the enemy’s insults. “It would be. difficult,” says the “News-Chronicle,” “to invent a more fantastic perversion. Take one sentence in the Prime Minister’s speech, “I am certain that all peoples in Europe, including the people of, Germany, long for peace—a peace which will enable them to live their lives without fear, and to devote their energies and gifts to the development of their culture, the pursuit of their ideals, and the improvement of their material prosperity.” Does that sound like a threat to destroy the German people? Is that insulting?” The “Daily Telegraph” says: “Judging by the reactions which he has excited, Mr Chamberlain has every reason to be satisfied with the reply he made to Herr Hitler’s socalled peace proposals. The speech was applauded by France and the Dominions, and was almost unreservedly approved by neutral countries, including the United States. / “Not even the Rome radio was hostile. Noting that Mr Chamberlain, while maintaining his point of view, did not definitely reject the possibility of peace, an Italian commentator-de-clares: “Italy’s position as a neutral remains unchanged.” Violently contrasted with this manifestation of the neutral countries is the outburst of frantic fury in Germany—a fury embittered, it seems, by painful disillusionment. “Evidently Germany had persuaded itself that France' and Britain would collapse at the blast of the Hitler trumpets, like the walls of Jericho falling'before the trumpets of Joshua. It was complacently supposed that Poland, having been crushed and dismembered, nothing remained but to celebrate one more characteristic Hitler triumph and assimilate the spoil at leisure before staging Another smash and grab assault upon a neighbour’s freedom.” The. “Daily Telegraph” adds: H Herr Hitler were sincere in his desire for stable peace, he could find in Mr Chamberlain’s reply ample opportunity for putting forward proposals worthy of consideration. If he was not sincere, then it would be in the last degree imprudent to be drawn into a net of mere make-believe negotiations.” „„ t The “Daily Herald” says:. “Fortunately in the rest of the world, where the writ of Hitlerism does not run, the purpose of British policy is understood and appreciated. Some day it will be understood by the people, of Germany also, and then it will be possible to negotiate with free men and women of the new Reich a decent and lasting peace.” U.S. 'PRESS OPINIONS. NEW YORKK, October 13. The Washington correspondent of the “New York Times” says: Mr Roosevelt has dissipated thoughts of any possibility of his intervention as peacemaker on unofficial German suggestions. More by his silence than by what he said, he indicated that he has no intention to move, either through an offer of mediation or otherwise, unless one or all of the belligerents ask him officially.” The Secretary of State (Mr Cordell Hull) said that no phase of the question of mediation had been raised at the United States Embassy in Berlin by Germany. The “New York Times,” in a leading article, says: “Should Germany formally request the United States to convoke a peace conference it would be our privilege to draw attention to the successive official appeals and warnings the United States has given against German aggression, and to assert our readiness to call a conference when Germany has made restitution and has appropriately guaranteed her intention to respect future treaties.” , „ . The New York “Herald-Tribune, m a leading artidle, says: “Dietrichs interview has altered the whole face of the international situation. There has been no more brilliant or more ominous revelation of the paranoiac state of the Nazi mind than this. Apart from its divorce from all sense of the realities of the American attitude, it exposes a view of the Intel national situation appalling in its implications. Exactly repeating the familiar technique, it reduces the British Empire to the role of a second Poland and gives the United States the role

hitherto contemptuously allotted to Britain. If the United States fails in this it will be branded as the warmonger solely responsible for the slaughter the Nazi Napoleon ruthlessly threatens. “Can even Senator Borah talk of the United States as an isolated private island of peace when Herr Hitler thus orders us to be his allies in a colossal second' Munich, or to take the consequences, It is certainly impossible for the United States .to move towards peace or mediation after this.” OPINIONS OF NEUTRALS. RUGBY, October 14. The Portuguese newspaper “Voz” expressed the view that Hei i Hitlei s peace offer was on a basis which Bri-

tain and France could not accept with honour. A Sofia newspaper emphasises the British-French determination to op.pose force, and pays a tribute to the peace efforts of Mr. Chamberlain. The Swiss Press is nearly unanimous in its interpretation of the result of the declarations of Herr Hitler, M. Daladier and Mr. Chamberlain in the sense that “peace” now depends on Germany. Reviewing the position as left by the firm British statement, the Swedish newspaper “Tidningen” says: The only thing certain is that Germany is rushing to destruction. A sense of impending doom in this, as in other cases, is likely to drive counsels to despair. I The Danish “Social Demokratin” regards Mr. Chamberlain’s speech as a clear rejection of Herr Hitler’s proposals without being violent. It does not preclude all negotiations, in this newspaper’s view, but defines specific conditions on which peace would be possible. According to a Bucharest Press report, the newspaper “Universal” writes that Mr. Chamberlain’s speech makes clear his three conditions for peace: Firstly, the restoration of Poland and Czechoslovakia; secondly, real guarantees against further aggression; and thirdly, a restoration of. confidence which the present German Government is incapable of doing. A further condition is that Germany shall renounce further successes in Eastern Europe. This newspaper takes the view that the Roumanian Government is of opinion that the German peace offensive is misplaced, and says it is plain that the Western Powers draw a clear distinction between the German Government and German people. According to the Swedish newspaper “Tidningea,” Scandinavian countries are fully aware of the consequences of adopting the reported German advice to them to abandon their trade with Western countries. The “Tidningen” says: “Germany states she can take all Scandinavian exports. That Germany cannot pay for them one regards, of course, quite calmly in Germany.”

“BACK TO REALITIES.” [BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.] (Recd. October 16, 10.30 a.m.) RUGBY. October 15. The attitude of the Sunday newspapers, looking back on the week following Herr Hitler’s Reichstag speech, during which important declarations have come from M. Daladier and Mr. Chamberlain, is well summed up by “Scrutator” in the “Sunday Times" in the phase, “Herr Hitler’s peace offensive failed to deceive. It was a war manoeuvre.” The conclusion reached by most commentators, after a survey of the main factors of the existing situation, including world reactions to the utterances of the three national leaders, the position on sea, land and air, in the developments in North East Europe, and what is known or surmised of the Russian-Turkish negotiations in Moscow, is equally well condensed in a phrase in the editorial columns of the same newspaper, “The German Fuehrer must come back to realities.”

TO ENLIGHTEN GERMANS. RUGBY, October 14. An agency telegram fyom Paris cites M. Henri Bidou, military expert of the “Intransigeant” as stating that war methods must conform with the political ends of war. Replying to those who are saying this is a funny war, he writes: “It is a question of disassociating the German people from a Government which through its iniquities, its tricks and its abuse of power, has become a plague for the whole of Europe. The first thing is to enlighten the German people. The action of British airmen in scattering millions of tracts in Germany is therefore an excellent war operation.”

NAZIS DENY SUGGESTION BERLIN, October 14. The German official news agency, referring to Dr. von Dietrich’s (Propaganda Director) statement, now denies that there was any suggestion therein that President Roosevelt should intervene. It adds: “This assumption has been due to the misunderstanding of a private conversation.”

SWISS VIEWPOINT. [BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.] (Received October IG, 1.50 p.m.) RUGBY, October 15. The ready understanding in neutral countries of the Allied view is well illustrated by the following quotation from the Swiss newspaper, “Journal de Geneva.” which says: It is uncertain yet whether the Reich will reply officially to Mr. Chamberlain’s speech, but. it 'has been very badly received in Berlin. The violence of the German reaction shows the ill-concealed disappointment caused by the very firm attitude taken by the Allies. Yet the Reich Government could hardly expect that negotiations would be opened in which no account was taken of the Polish question, and could not expect Britain to agree to wipe out the past, and allow it to repeat on the diplomatic field the victory that crowned its conquest. A peace negotiated on that basis would never have been a true peace, because it would have contained the germs of future conflicts.

FIGHT AGAINST DICTATORSHIP COPENHAGEN, October 15. The Workers’ Union, “Hipa,” has circularised its members, paying a tribute to the British and French workers, who are “staking all against dictatorship. They are fighting for you, me. and the future freedom of the workers.’’