DANZIG SPEECH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23951, 28 October 1939, Page 11

DANZIG SPEECH

RIBBENTROP’S TIRADE I DISTORTION OF THE TRUTH SPLEEN VENTED ON BRITAIN RESPONSIBILITY FOR WAR (British Official Wireless) (United Press Association) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) RUGBY. Oct. 26. Referring to von Ribbentrop’s statement at Danzig on Tuesday. Mr Chamberlain suggested it might be thought to have significance since it followed lengthy consultations between the Nazi leaders. “ I do not propose to waste time commenting on the many details of this performance. No one in this country will be deceived by its distortion of the truth,” he said. “There is already abundant evidence that von Ribbentrop has been no more successful in his attempt to mislead impartial observers in other parts of the world. Indeed, I even cherish the hope, despite all suppressions and falsifications, that there are, still some in Germany itself who see where the real, truth lies. The main thesis of his speech is that it was England, not Germany, who desired and plotted for war. The whole world knows this is not true, and the whole world knows that no Government ever sought more ardently to avoid war or took greater risks to preserve peace than the Government of this country. We have already published with complete frankness all essential documents relating to the causes of the war. We are content to be judged by facts, and know that the verdict of the great majority of neutral observers is in our favour. Sir Neville Henderson’s final report referred to the encouragement given Hitler in his designs on Poland by von Ribbentrop, who apparently advised him up to the last moment that Britain would not fight, yet von Ribbentrop now asserts that the whole object of British policy since 1933 has been to prepare for war against Germany. A Great Tragedy “ One of the questions historians of the future will have to consider is how far the great tragedy of our times was due to the failure of von Ribbentrop to comprehend either the policy or character of the British people. I will make one other comment upon von Ribbentrop’s speech. He desires, it seems, to invite the Soviet to join in a crusade against the British Empire. Why, what a change is here,” exclaimed Mr Chamberlain, amid cheers. “Let me read two sentences from von Ribbentrop’s address to the press when he first came to England in 1936: ‘ Germany wants to be friends with Britain, and I think the British people also wish for German friendship. The Fuhrer is convinced that there is only one real danger to Europe and the British Empire as well—that is, the spreading further of Communism, this most terrible of all diseases—terrible because people generally stem to realise the danger only when it is too late,’ ’’ , . .... The laughter which this citation evoked was stilled as members heard the Prime Minister's measured comment that the positive conclusion tcvbe drawn from the Danzig speech was that the German Government had apparently made a choice which, as he made clear on October 12, lay before it. Von Ribbentrop had “ announced. their intention of seeing the struggle through with all their energy and. strength. If that is indeed their decision, there can be but one reply, and, declared Mr Chamberlain emphatically, we are prepared to give it.” Persistent Acts of Aggression Tim House renewed cheers when he added: “ But it is not England that has challenged Germany. It is the _ merman Government; which, by persistent acts of aggression. pursued m the face of repeated warnings, has forced us at last, reluctantly to take up arms. It is the German Government which, by a disregard of its pledged word and of the rights and liberties of other peoples, must hear the responsibility for this war and all is conseciuences. Y '' . THE GERMAN PEOPLE LIMITLESS CREDULITY NEUTRALS NOT IMPRESSED (British Official Wireless) RJJGBY, Oct. 26. Further examination of neutral opinion of von Ribbentrop’s speech confirms the early impression that it has done nothing to modify the view abroad that Germany is deservedly almost isolated in the present struggle The considered now expressed bv responsible English newspapers agree that his special pleading and invective were addressed to the German people, who, says the Daily Telegraph, have been screened by the Goebbels Propaganda Department from contact with the truth and been disciplined, to limitless credulity. “ But there are two dawning facts which cannot be concealed from the outer world, however reconcilable they are to the German conscience—the rape of Czechoslovakia in flat defiance of Hitler’s promise and the spoliation of Poland. Those are hardly the achievements of a Government which, as von Ribbentrop claims, has done its best to avoid war Nor do they inspire confidence in the renewal of protestations that the German frontiers are now definite, that stable conditions have now been created in Europe, and that the consolidation of the Reich has been concluded.” “A Blustering Demagogue ” The Times, which describes the speech as a “ bungler's apologia,’ recalls the failure of von Ribbentrop s mission as Ambassador in London, and says this first failure has been followed by “a series of blunders which have landed Germany in the worst diplomatic position in which she has ever found herself—far worse than that in which with her allies round her she stood at the beginning of last war. His Danzig speech suggests that von Ribbentrop, in fact, has abandoned his uncongenial role of diplomatist for that of a blustering demagogue. To those who listened to it the dominant note of his harangue was hysteria, and hysteria is a bad basis on which to conduct what the Nazis themselves describe as a war of nerves. Almost the only true statement which he made in the course of it was that the British people would at heart like to live in friendship with the German people, and it was perhaps the consciousness ofhis own heart that I he and the Fuhrer bad between them made this impossible that drove him to make the fantastic charges of a man who feels himself concerned and lashes out right and left.” A Lamentable Speech The Times adds: “There is not the slightest doubt that von Ribbentrop has antagonised large sections of opinion in his own country—honest Nazis and others who genuinely consider that Communism is evil, Rosenberg theorists who believe in the doctrine of expansion north-eastwards, admirals who do not care to see the Baltic become a Russian lake, and industrialists who looked to South-east- , ern Europe for filling partners in Ger- ' man trade. All these, in greater or lesser degree, have seen their hopes dashed and their aims miscarried. “ The author of their disillusionment is now trying by bluster and false charges to absolve himself from the consequences of his own ineptitude and to put upon the generals the responsi-

bility for getting the country out of the difficult position into which he has thrust it. He ended his lamentable speech with a call to that war against Britain which itself falsifies his own forecasts and declares the bankruptcy of his own policy.”