HITLER’S BITTER ATTACK

Northern Advocate, 9 March 1936, Page 5

HITLER’S BITTER ATTACK

CONSEQUENCE OF FRANCOSOVIET PACT (Received 10 a.m.) BERLIN, March 7. Wearing a brown shirt, clutching a handkerchief in his clenched hand, and emphasising his sentences with abrupt gestures, Herr Hitler, throughout his speech in the Reichstag, repeatedly returned to denunciations of the Franco-Soviet Pact, which, he asserted, destroyed any real equilibrium and contradicted both in letter and spirit the Locarno Treaty. Referring to Locarno, Herr; Hitler said Germany had always been ready to fulfil the treaty, while others did likewise. He added:—

“My conclusions regarding the

new situation are hard. I bitterly regret denouncing the Locarno

Treaty, but I have tried repeatedly during the last three years to build

a Franco-German bridge of understanding. It is infinitely tragic,

that, after many years of honest endeavour to win French friend-

ship a military alliance should be concluded, of which we know the beginning but not the end. There may be incalculable consequences, unless Providence has more mercy than men deserve.”

Herr Hitler denied that his political activities against the Treaty of Versailles were intended to damage France, which had not suffered by the restoration of equality in Germany." “I cannot only make sacrifices for international rapprochement,” he said, “I must also make them for my own people, who would rather shoulder all sacrifices than surrender honour.”

Herr Hitler’s voice remained firm until his peroration, when he sobbingly pleaded, with outstretched hands, for the people’s support, saying: “Many European statesmen consider me fantastic, or at least a burdensome scaremonger. Never-

theless, I never feel like a dictator, but like a leader with plenipotentiary powers. I am often oppressed by worry and pass sleepless nights. I ask the German people to strengthen me in the struggle for true peace, and to stand up for honour.”