GERMAN OFFENSIVE IMMINENT

Horowhenua Chronicle, 17 October 1939, Page 5

GERMAN OFFENSIVE IMMINENT

Great Preparations On Whole Western Front Enemy Troops Brought Up To Front Line By Telegraph—Press Assn—Copyright Received Tuesday, 1.30 a.m. PARIS, October 16. This morning’s French communique reports great activity within the enemy’s lines between the Saar and the Moselle. There is patrol activity on both sides west of Wissembourg. A later Paris message says the Germans are making great preparations on the whole Western Front. An offensive appears very imminent. Troops have been brought up to the front line and the noise of engines is heard all night long, but the artillery is silent to avoid disclosing the positions. The French artillery reacted violently.

Germany Already Lost War

Noted American Scholar’s View • Received Monday, 10.30 p.m. BOSTON, October 16. Dr. Anton de Haas, Professor of International Relations at Harvard University, declares that Germany has already lost the war. The time of her collapse depends on the period the Nazis will take to balance their books with guns. He cautioned the Allies in the event of victory to avoid the errors of Versailles. A bankrupt Germany would be a fertile ground for Communism. The Allies would fim! that the defeat of Germany would face them with a more disturbing problem, Russia would thereby be aided in establishing Communism throughout Germany. For this reason the Conservatives, middle classes and industrialists hesitated to revolt against the Nazis. He urged Allied peace aims offering Germany equality and aid in solving her financial chaos with the ultimate goal of European co-operation to overcome her economic problems.

Hitler Bartered Blood For Gold

Had To Pay Stalin’s Price Received Tuesday, 12.55 a.m. LONDON, October 16. Under the sub-headline, “Nazis sell out in the Baltic,” the Times gives prominence to its Riga special correspondent’s quotation of the opinion in informed circles there that the withdrawal of Germans from abroad means that Hitler sold to Stalin his European and colonial interests. Hitler needed gold immediately and Stalin would not pay in advance without the irrevocable relinquishment of Germany’s hold in the Baltic, so Berlin precipitately ordered the repatriation from the Baltic States, these ancient outposts of the German Empire, paying with bodies and freedom for Hitler’s conquest of Poland and the war in the west. Their price in gold enables Hitler to purchase ores from Sweden and other war materials wherever procurable. The first irrevocable step having been taken, Germany sees the distress that has been caused and is now trying to alleviate it by slackening the pace. Since Bishop Poelchau, head of the German Lutheran Church in Latvia, likened Hitler’s voice to the voice of God, the spiritual distress of the maturer evacuees has deepened to a sort of unresisting sacrificial resignation. Indeed, some murmured: “We have been sold like slaves for red gold and forcibly transported to live on stolen Polish farms. ’ ’

ARE NAZIS TRYING IN ADVANCE TO JUSTIFY USE OF GAS? RUGBY, Oct. 15. Following further reports broadcast by the German wireless that Polish troops employed yellow-cross gas mines obtained from Britain, the War Office states: "In spite of the categorical denial issued by the British Government, which has not supplied gas in any form or at any time to Poland, the German radio stations continue impudently to broadcast this baseless charge." The War Office recalls that the first German gas attack in the last war was preceded by similar allegations, when, on April 17, 1915, the German Wolff Agency stated: "Yesterday, east of Ypres, the British employed shells and bombs filled with asphyxiating gas." The first German gas attack was launched on April 22, 1915. No gas for war purposes was manufactured by Britain until May, 1915.

“NO ROOM IN KEY JOBS POE POLITICAL HACKS” LONDON, Oct. 15. All sections of the press criticise the Government’s economic and financial planning, the chief complaint being that it has not yet realised the magnitude of the task. Sir John Simon’s appointment as chairman of the Committee of Economic Co-ordination is considered fantastic. Some papers point out that he has not the slightest qualifications for the job. Sir John Gilmour’s appointment as Minister of Shipping has similarly disappointed the press and the City. There is an undercurrent of feeling that, as the war proceeds, there will be no room in key jobs for political hacks and those whose talents are merely forensic.