NO PEACE WITH NAZIS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVII, Issue 21449, 13 September 1939, Page 8

NO PEACE WITH NAZIS

Record of Broken Pledges Menace To Security Of World British Official Wireless RUGBY, September 11. A Ministry of Information bulletin states: “Official circles consider that Field-Marshal Goering’s speech revealed the bankruptcy of the German policy. Hitler has made many promises to foreign countries, but none has been kept, therefore it is surprising that no confidence is placed in any assurance that he may give, and Britain is justified in requiring' that peace should be concluded with a German Government whose word may be trusted. “The German G overnment has also misled the German people, who were promised ‘peace and honour.’ They have not got peace because the German Government deliberately pursues a policy of violence, which made war inevitable. They have not got honour because the world recognises the i crudity and falseness of the German Government’s charges against Poland. The ‘sickening technique’ as the Prime Minister called it, has become too familiar. There is no country in Europe which does not regard the present German Government as pursuing a dishonourable policy, which is a menace to the security and independence of all. "Britain is fighting for a return to decency in international relations. Until this is achieved, no country is safe. Germany may say that she has no aims in the West, but the tale of limited German territorial ambitions has been told too often to inspire the slightest confidence. Britain does not desire another Versailles as FieldMarshal Goering falsely alleges, nor the collapse of Germany, but a just and enduring peace with any honourable German Government.” Failure of Nazi Strategy The significance of the War Cabinet’s decision to prepare for three years or more of war continues tj engage attention in the newspapers. To “The Times” it appears s meaning that “in Jie first place, the Nazi political strategy has wholly failed. This strategy, of which traces appear in Field-Marshal Goering's clumsy and rather uneasy broadcast on Saturday, aimed at gulling the Western Powers into a dishonourable peace after the consummation of the crime against Poland. But Nazi Germany in 1939 has been guilty of the same blunder as the Kaiser’s Germany in 1914. In the words c. e the late Lord Orford, the “capital blunder of the Germans then was to ask themselves: ‘Co »Id any nation, least of all the cold, calculating phlegmatic, egotistic British nation, embark upon a costly and bloody contest from which it had nothing in t ie way of profit to expect. They forgot we had something at stake which ,annot be translated into words.’ “They have forgoteen it again. And, by the same wishful thinking, they h..ve been given the same answer -o the same misguided question.” “The Times” also makes the ; oint that the “prudent but not pessimistic decision means that the plans prepared for organising the national effort during the war will be put into g jeration complete and without delay. It is no exaggeration to say, that, on a comparison with 1914, thr.se plans have advanced our readiness for war by between one and two years.” Disappointment for Germans The “Daily Telegraph.” commenting editorially on Field-Marshal Goering’s speech, states: “V.Ticn the Ger.in armies violated Belgium in 1914, their leaders counted on a hort war. FieldMarshal Goering has told the unfortunate German people that Hiller’s campaign for the destruction of Poland will not last more Ilian lour weeks. That Ixtasl was given a withering answer in an hour. It. was uttered by the aniiuunceinenl by the British War Cabinet that its policy was being framed and plans made lor a war which may last for three yea. s or longer. “Whatever successes Hitler’s perfidy and desperate haste may win in Poland, and the wild exaggerations with which Field-Marshal Goering thinks it necessary to advertise Ll.em, suggest uncomfortable disappointment. All the world now knows that they will be only the beginning of a struggle to which Nazism has challenged civilisation, and into which the British will throw all their strength.”