Oct. 12.
While Mr. Neville Chamberlain's reply to Herr Hitler's peace speech will not be made until today, the speech broadcast by M. Edouard Daladier, reaffirming the determi tion of the French to fight on for the right to live in security, is sufficient indication of what the British Prime Minister will say. France is determined to submit to no "diktat"
it not singular how words used by one side can be used so aptly by the other?—of violence. M. Daladier is almost epigramatic in his summing up of Herr Hitler's attitude,—"I have annihilated Poland. 1 am satis fied, Let us stop fighting and hold a conference to consecrate my conquests, and organize peace." In the fixed determination of the French that no such proposition can be acceptable Great Britain is no whit behind, The fact that Mr. Chamberlain's speech was not made yesterday is no evidence of any weakening. It is necessary, as it has been explained, that the whole of the constituent parts of the Empire shall be consulted, and that is the only reason for the delay. Today Herr Hitler, and the world at large will know that Great Britain, like France, finds the proposals which he has made wholly unacceptable, as being based upon a victory which he has not yet secured, and which the Allies will strain every nerve to prevent him from gaining. Nothing has yet transpired to show that the confidence in ultimate victory, with which Great Britain and France took up the chol-Tenge of the Reich, is in any way unjustified. Much has occurred to show that there is every reason to believe that the Allies will prevail, and that the die which Herr Hitler has east is loaded against him. He was in no position to demand peace when he made his speech, and has not yet been reduced to that state when he will have to plead for it, Indeed ever since the subjugation of Poland there has been no amend= ment of his ideas on the psychology of the Allies, and he seems bent on perpetrating the same mistakes which have brought him to his present unfortunate position.
That last phrase is used advisedly. His position is unfortunate as a brief review of the facts will show. With the assistance of Russia, and the employment of everwhelming force Poland has been conquered. It is necessary for him to maintain a continual progression of successes, the victory over Poland is speedily losing the attention of the German people. Allegations of ait raid damage to capital British vessels, the claim to have bombed and damaged the Ark Royal, the various other untrue allegations of success are all designed to prove to the German people that the machine which he has perfected is invulnerable and all-powerful. It is only by such means that he can hope to persuade the German people to continue following him down the ruinous path the has chosen for them. On the other hand the Allies have brought the submarine menace to naught. The economic blocks of Germany lias been perfected to the high~ est pitch, and the Allies have been mitted to assemble their forces on the French frontiers, destroying all chance of the lightning stroke with which Herr Hitler: originally hoped to gain the There is ingestion, it is true, that he assuming Supreme command in the west for the pur pose of carrying out a lightning campaiim, but his timing has been all wrong. The moment has passed for the swift disabling blow which he planned, and, whether he likes it or not, lhe is now condemned to the long drawn out war in which the Allies can play a waiting game, while sgeowing discontent in Germany, over the paucity of food supplies and the absence of great victories gets in its fell work. The Allies, with all the seas open to them, and consequently the supplies of the whole world, fare in no such desperate condition, and they can afford to bide their time, secure in the Knowledge that: victory will be inevitably theirs while the German army batters itself ayainst their formidable defences. Herr Hitler is consequently obliged to force the pace, (0 obtain something to justify his policies in the eyes of the people he is delud~ 1g, and, as the weeks pass, his need for such will become increasingly imperative.
In this desperation which is becoming s0 apparent is to be found the reason why, up to the present, Herr Hitler has not resorted to the use of the German air force for bombing his opponents. "Apart from the fact that he is probably reluctant at the moment to assume the obloquy which must result from the initiative in this matter, there is the realization which he must' have, and also. the German people themselves now, that such an offensive will invite retaliation. To many thinking Germans there must have been brought' home the realization that those millions of pamphlets which have been dropped into Germany might very well have been a smaller, but nonetheless destructive number of bombs. The British air force has shown Herr Hitler that there is no place in Germany which cannot be reached, and his apparent reluetanee to commence his air offensive is quite obviously due to fear of the con sequences. He has had sum cient warning, served upon him that whatever he seeks (0 mete out to the Allies will in turn be meted out to him, and in this ease there is not the overwhelming superiority of strength in the air which he possessed over Poland. Again he has to race against time. He has commenced his war with his nation already rationed so far as the important foods of bread, meat, milk, sugar and fats are concerned. That he was warned against by his own advisers. Successful gambles in the past apparently lead him to believe that he can yo on winning indefinitely. "Untold numbers of gamblers have thought the same thing and have paid dearly for their dis iMlusionment. It is to be expected that, when Mr. Chamberlain informs him today that his peace offensive has failed, Herr Hitler will seek to bring an early termination to the war by the rapid action in which he has always been a believer. "He will meet with a resistance immeasurably: superior to that which the gallant Poles were able to offer, and as his armies in the west settle down to the protracted gruelling of a long war, as his people tighten their belts ayainst the increasing shortage foodstuffs, there will be brought home to them this terrible evil which this man has brought upon them. Of a verity quern Dens yuit perdere prius dementat.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.