One of the outstanding features of the latest White Paper on the negotiations between Great Britain and Herr Hitler just prior to the ould break of the war is the conclusion to be drawn from the abridgment to hand that up to the very last hour Herr Hitler must have believed that the Allies would not fight. It is true that he admitted to Sir Nevile Henderson that he realized that Great Britain was not bluffing, fand assured him that he also was not engaged in the same pastime, It Is to be wondered at, however, how It was possible to discuss practieally in the very same breath the question of an Anglo-German alliance. If he thought such a thing were possible at such a stage, he could only have believed that Britain would not fight, for obviously if, as was the case, Great Britain had decided that the fate of Poland was the test of Britain's actions, and Herr Hitler had determined on action against her, there could bbe no question of negotiating an alliance. Such fan arrangement could only have been negotiate ed following the dropping of Herr Hitler's policy against Poland, and, though he denied that he thought it, he must, nevertheless, have still Dolieved. that' hostilities would not. result from whatever action he might have to take against the victim he had had decided upon. The general impression from the very abbreviated account of the White Paper 1s that Herr Hitler was under the impression—that Great Britain was in the market for an alliance, and suggested that an offer of something immediately in the way of colonies might made. The fact of the matter is that Herr Hitler had no. valuable consideration to contribute to an alliance. At the most, judging from all that has happened in the past, would have been a flimsy foundation upon which to seck to reconstruct peace and would have had about it no greater permanence than fother engagements into which Herr Hitler has entered in the past, and which nave been marked by their evanescent qualities.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.