Speculation is rife here as to whether intransigent German demands lay behind the eryplic phrase my lips were not scaled"—made by Mr. Stanley Baldwin, the Prime Minister, in the recent debate in the House of Commons.
The European correspondent of the "New York Times" makes the sensa~ tional disclosure to-day that December 13, atter the Paris peace plan had been formulated, the British, Ambassador in Berlin, Sir Erie Phipps, sounded the Reichsfuhrer, Herr Adolf Hitler, concerning his attitude towards an air pact and a reduction in land armaments, He reveals thut the Fuhrer refused to consider an air pact, which he himself had advocated seven' months ago, until the following conditions had been fulflied:—
Unchallengeable German superiority had" been established over Buropea ale forces:
Germany's desire for the return of her colonies had been granted: and "The War guilt clause had been expunged irom the Versailles Treaty.
According to this correspondent, the British Ambassador's instructions were to declare to Herr Hitler that German armaments were viewed with anxiety by the British Government, which was watching their growth with concern and would welcome an assurance concerning them.
This communication, together with the Ambassador's suggestion for an air pact to deliver Europe from. anxiety, is reported to have been received by the German Chancellor with anger and_truculence,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.