HITLER ANXIOUS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23930, 4 October 1939, Page 7

HITLER ANXIOUS

THE DESIRE FOR PEACE "INSOLENT MANIFESTO" USUAL NAZI TACTICS MERELY PLAYING FOR TIME (British Official Wireless) (United Press Association) (By Electric Telef ph—Copyright) RUGBY, Oct. 2. Allied Opinion has been completely unmoved by the Moscow declaration of. September 29, and the rejection out of hand of the German so-called "peace offensive" is taken, for granted. A week-end study in London and Paris of the Moscow, development has not in any way modified the attitude towards what is regarded as an ill-considered attempt by the

Reich to escape from its difficulties. Newspaper comment on the subject is unanimous. The Manchester Guardian says: "The people in this country are hardly likely to be impressed by this latest example of Hitler's peacemaking technique. They will remember the fate of other countries, whose safety Hitler has in the past guaranteed. The democracies know there can only be one end to the war on which they have embarked, and they are determined to carry on relentlessly until victory is achieved. Hitler's, eagerness for peace betrays indeed his own anxiety., If he were confident of the success of a lightning war against Britain and France, he would not be inviting Signor Mussolini's mediation. It is because he knows that a continuance of the present war must ultimately involve his own ruin and the downfall of the Nazi regime that he is now trying to frighten the democracies into accepting a dishonourable peace. The British people firmly believe in the justice of their cause. Meanwhile, the war must be prosecuted with unremitting energy." The Manchester Guardian, after quoting Mr Churchill's statement that the War began when Hitler wanted it, added; . ''We owe it as a duty to ourselves and all mankind to fight on until Hitlerism is wiped from the face of the earth. Only then will it be possible for men to live at peace and work together to build up a civilisation of which the human race may be proud." The Daily Telegraph says: "Nazidom will shrink from no resort to avert defeat, and its adversaries must steel themselves to face its utmost vindictiveness. They hav« set themselves to demonstrate that aggression does not pay. They have already accepted all the risks and sacrifices necessary to that supreme end, and they would stultify their own effort, as well as betray their cause, if they acquiesced in the successes which aggression has temporarily won." Reply Already Detenained The Times says: "Unless the specific terms of the peace which the Nazi and Soviet Governments announce depart'very widely from the lines laid down in the statement issued from Moscow on Friday, the reply has already been determined in advance by the universal public revulsion against that insolent manifesto'. The line of argument by which the confederates profess to acquiesce in their division of the spoils of aggression is that by which the political assassin has often claimed to evade the fate of the common murderer. Poland, they say, has been destroyed and cannot come to life again. In Britain and France any signs of the enemy's misgivirg will, of course, be taken to indicate that this is the moment, not to relsnt, but to stiffen our resolution to the utmost." The Daily Herald says: " When the Nazis, believe themselves to be stronger than their enemies they do not ask for peace—they attack. So now we have it on their own authority that Britain and France are in a superior position. Hitler wants time to repair his aircraft losses, to stamp out all Polish resistance, to build more submarines, and to restock his arsenals with war materials. Then he would . turn on Britain and Franco seek to destroy them, if possible in isolation That has always been the Nazi tactics—to soothe and segregate the intended victim until he is too weak, too unprepared, and too isolated to resist. We shall not be taken in that way. There will be no dishonourable bargain which leaves the plunderer in possession of his prey, and no peace while the Poles and Czechs remain under Nazi tyranny."

GENERAL FRITSCH'S DEATH

RESULT OF GUNFIRE LONDON, Oct. 2. (Received Oct. 3, at 11 p.m.) The British United Press Amsterdam correspondent states that a German lieutenant told a Dutch journalist who was touring the Warsaw front that General Fritsch died as the result of machine-gun fire from a house which was believed to be empty. General Fritsch was directing an artillery regiment.