The rumours, which have been current recently to the effect that Herr Hitler contemplates an invasion of Great Britain, receive added point by the publication of a hint to that effect in the "Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung" which writes that there is "no divine law that the island chosen people' should always be immune from entrance by an enemy." The paper goes on to state: "The plan at which experts have often mildly sneered may change with surprising suddenness. The future will show whether the island, largely denuded of fighting forces, is still unassailable." It is the old Napoleonic dream revived again as a bogey for the purpose of frightening the British, and they will decline thus to be frightened as they were over a century ago. Napoleon could not do it, and there is nothing whatever to suggest that the German corporal has so far advanced in military science since the last war as to be able to outshine that master strategist. It is obvious that, before any such attempt can be made with any prospect whatever of success, it will be necessary for Germany to have complete control of the seas, and to have destroyed the British navy. Without that being done, it would be impossible either to transport a sufficiently formidable army across the North Sea to cause the British authorities grave concern, or to maintain it in England if ever it were allowed to.land. It would be necessary also to have command of the air. Britain has mastery of the seas and there is plenty to suggest that she is well on the road to superiority in the air. Possessed of both she would be able very quickly to put an end to any German. dream of invading Britain. Indeed in such circumstances it would not even be attempted, unless, of course, Herr Hitler's control of the German high command is greater then it appears to be at the present, for a more insane venture at this period of the war cannot be conceived. Destruction of the Allied naval and air fleets is an essential prerequisite and until that has been achieved, a very unlikely event indeed, there need be no fear of Germans descending on the British coasts. They would even then meet with a decidedly hearty reception which would not be entirely to their liking. In connection with this subject it is interesting o note that the German paper goes on to say ʻA war is not won by the application of rigid, traditional rules, but with courage, and imagination" With that it is entirely possible to agree. It was courage and imagination which won the last war, and rigid, traditional rules which lost it. The amount of imagination which has been displayed by the Germans up to the present in this war is practically negligible. 'They may have acquired that quality since the last war, but if they have, they have succeeded mightily' in keeping it up their sleeve.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.