GOEBBELS’ ASSURANCE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 142, 19 June 1939, Page 8

GOEBBELS’ ASSURANCE

DANZIG WILL RETURN TO REICH Received June 19, 1 a.m. DANZIG, June 18. Calling on citizens of Danzig to hold out pending their return to the Reich, the Propaganda Minister, Dr. Goebbels, in an impromptu speech, declared: “The world should know from past experience that the Fuhrer does not make empty speeches. The world commits a dangerous "'istake if it believes that the Fuhrer shrinks from threats or surrenders to blackmail; therefore you can look confidently to the future. Germany stands b. your side, just as you remain loyal to it. The lying, war-inciting press in London and Paris asserts that you do not want to return to the Reich. I came in order to strengthen your determination. Only a jealous, unreasonable world can undertake to resist the urge oi one people to join another. “Dr. Goebbels said that according to Warsaw, towns at river mouths belong to the countries through which the rivers flow, therefore Rotterdam belongs to Germany because the Rhine is German. This method of solving matters was lame and almost comical. Poland declared that the river Oder was \r frontier. It was surprising that she did not claim it was the Rhine where she would meet her new British allies, who regard the Rhine as their frontier. Lord Halifax had declared that he wanted the Danzig question to be settled in a friendly manner, and therefore Britain had given Poland a blank cheque. Attempts were being made to encircle Italy and Germany in order to revive the policy of 1914. They erred if they believed that they were confronted oy a weak bourgeois.

The German crowd punctuated the speech with cries of “The Fuiirer will come to Danzag*.*’ “One Fuhrer, one people, one Rsich!”