HITLER'S PEACE ULTIMATUM

Southland Times, Issue 24184, 22 July 1940, Page 6

HITLER'S PEACE ULTIMATUM

Boasting of the might of the Reich’s arms and threatening the destruction of the British Empire, Herr Hitler delivered a peace ultimatum. First, he sought to blame the democracies for the war. He declared that only the obstinacy of the “bloody-handed Jewish warmongers” of Britain and France were responsible for Poland’s opposition to his “reasonable” proposals. “Jews, Freemasons, arms manufacturers, war profiteers, international business people and stock exchange pirates used their desperado political hirelings to launch the war,” he said. “Germany showed superhuman selfcontrol, but France and Britain wanted war. “The Germans found in a railway station in France secret documents of every meeting of the Anglo-French War Council bearing hand-written annotations by General Gamelin, M. Daladier, General Weygand and ‘all the rest’,” Herr Hitler continued. “These show how small nations were to be brought into the conflagration. “Britain and France planned to spread the war throughout Europe. We owe cur knowledge of the Democracies’ war plans to their garrulousness. During the winter they looked out for new opportunities for plunder. I concentrated on increasing the Reich’s military efficiency. “These stony-hearted politicians sought to extend the war and attempted to use the Russo-Finnish war to harm Germany through Russia. They determined to convert Sweden and Norway to a theatre of war, planned a conflagration in the Balkans to gain the assistance of 100 divisions from those countries, planned the bombardment of Batum and Baku by a ruthless and unscrupulous interpretation of Turkish neutrality, and inveigled Belgium and Holland until they enticed them to sign general staff agreements.”

After a detailed account of the reasons for, and the operations of, the

Norwegian invasion, which he described as the boldest undertaking in the history of German forces, HenHitler declared: “It then became evident that Britain and France intended to make a lightning dash across Belgium into Germany at any moment after the beginning of May.” Herr Hitler described how he planned and worked out to meet these threats and how the Schlieffen Plan became a disguise for thrusting the main German force against the enemy’s right flank and reaching the Meuse. “The enemy actions greatly increased the ease of our break through,” he said. “This operation, which included the destruction of the entire British Expeditionary Force, was not primarily directed at taking Paris, but at reaching the Swiss frontier. “After the destruction of Britain no Churchill will remain to attempt rehabilitation. The people in London will have a totally different idea from Churchill’s.”