Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1939 GERMAN MINISTER’S EFFRONTERY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 26 October 1939, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1939 GERMAN MINISTER’S EFFRONTERY

THE German Foreign Minister’s attack on Britain will not add to Germany’s prestige, or to his already besmirched reputation. Neither will it injure Britain. Herr von Ribbentrop declared that Britain was responsible for the war, “firstly, by an anti-German Press campaign; secondly, the guarantee to Poland; thirdly, the rejection of Herr Hitler’s peace proposals on 6th October.’’ Let us consider these points briefly: What is termed an anti-German Press campaign in Britain was a spontaneous protest against Herr Hitler’s anti-Polish campaign, a protestation for which the British Government was not responsible, though probably it agreed with it. Indeed, the British Press, Government, and people were of one mind as to the German Government’s grasping foreign policy, and condemned it utterly. In the second place, Britain’s guarantee of Poland was well known to Herr Hitler and it was his ruthless invasion of Poland, following on less bloody successful aggression, not Britain’s guarantee of that country, which precipitated the existing war. The reference to Herr Hitler’s peace proposals of 6th October carries no weight, because they merely amounted to a declaration that since Poland had been vanquished he magnanimously proposed there should be peace on his own terms. Of course such an attitude could not be tolerated by the Great Powers who, in their determination to combat the menace of further German aggression, were the guarantors of Poland’s independence, and the responsibility for the war rests on the shoulders of the Nazi Dictator. Herr von Ribbentrop’s extraordinary diatribe against Britain —spoken hurriedly and jerkily, “rather like a schoolboy reading an essay before his class”—has completely failed to impress anyone outside Germany. In a fantastic manner he completely travestied events leading to the war. His speech was filled with lying, misrepresentations and boastful threats. England and France contemplate it unmoved and it is thought the British Government will be well content to allow the world to form its own view now that its case has been made public. The world knows who is the aggressor. In regard to the German Foreign Minister’s clumsy manoeuvre in trying to separate Britain and France, one writer says: “Let M. Daladier speak for the Democracies: ‘Germany’s conquests were but stages on the road which would have led France and Europe to direct slavery’.” Ribbentrop’s affirmation that Great Britain imposed the war on France is described by a Paris paper as effrontery. It accuses him of deceiving himself and the German people and adds: “This time he has uttered the biggest lie of his life.” As the “New York Times” says: “When it is remembered that it was Ribbentrop who convinced Hitler that Great Britain would never fight, this diatribe against their insatiable will to wage war is a furious confession of his own tragic mistake.” From Rome it is reported that von Ribbentrop’s speech, like that of Herr Hitler’s to the Reichstag, served to convince the Italians that there was no hope of halting the war, “and that therefore they had better keep out even more rigidly than before.”

For years Britain has adopted a conciliatory attitude towards Germany. Even since the war it has been emphasised that there is no desire to crush the German people who have been misled and deceived. It is unprincipled Hitlerism and Nazism that must be wiped out of existence. There is behind the Allies' action a great principle. If Germany is to assimilate Poland, why should not the assimilate other small countries, until the greater part of Europe is subservient to Germany, and the balance of power in that Continent is destroyed? So it will be seen that by opposing Germany's acquisitive policy the Allies are conserving those comparatively weak States which would become victims in the same manner as Poland has been victimised. Ultimately the larger Powers would have been assailed. The independence of small European States is essential if national liberty and freedom are to survive. Britain has assumed no new attitude. She is resisting an attempt to dominate Europe, just as she has resisted such attempts, through three-and-a-half centuries; and as she was successful in thwarting such attempts by nations which in their day were as great as Germany is to-day, there is every prospect that she will attain her purpose, the more especially as she has France as her ally, and has won the moral support of other nations which are devoted to the cause of freedom.