While nothing has emanated from the Quai d'Orsay, or Whitehall, which are both busily studying the offer of good offices from. the King of the Belgians and the Queen of the Netherlands, Herr Hitler has bluntly re~ Jected it, brusquely,—in a beer hall, "It is true that! he made no direct reference to the offer of mediation, but he did say that he had given orders to Field Marshal Goering to prepare for a five-year-war, and if that, following upon receipt of the message from the rulers of the two most-threatened neutral countries, is not a complete rejection, it is dimMcult to know what is, It is a tiresome fact that the lucubrations of Herr Hitler have had to receive so much notice in the past, and must continue to do so in the future, for his speeches are very much of the nature of "the aforesaid artist playing upon the above-mentioned instrument." But it is the evil fate of the people of Europe, and of his own countrymen that the former have to read what the Jatter have to hear, Der Fuehrer commenced by going over the usual summary of German victories, necessary doubtedly because of the scant success which has attended his policies since the rape of Poland. Then for the greater part of his speech he indulged in the usual attacks on Great Britain, vitriolic blasts of fury the outbursts of an angry, disappointed "man, realizing that he is no longer able to have his way with the acquiescence of the Allies, but that he has been forced to lengths which he always promised his people he would save them from, Nor can he leave Mr.
Winston Churchill alone. By the facile manner in which Herr Hitler twists history for his own purposes, he manages this time to lay the blame forthe last war upon the First Lord of the Admiralty, who, of course, is, according to this strange manipulator of fads, responsible for the present struggle. The fact of the matter is that Mr. Churchill has all along been so clear in his understanding of Hitlerian policies, and has proved so accurate in his forecast of trends, that the Navis have come to know that he understands them, and because of that they fear him, Mr. Churchill was not responsible for the last war, That blame lies just as much at the doors of those gentlemen who thought they could tear up scraps of paper with immunity, as responsibility for the present struggle rests upon that man and his ac~ complices who fancied that they could follow a policy of dishonouring undertakings and escape scatheless.
Herr Hitler for once indulges in the odd pastime of giving his hearers a single glimpse of the truth. "What have we done against the British 7" he asks, "What have we taken from them? Nothing. Have we threatened them? The truth is that Britain Joathes Nazi Germany, and the Nazi social reforms that have put an end to unemployment and hettered the fate of the workmen."
German workmen best know whether their lot has been bettered, and they are perforce dumb on the subject. But when he says that Britain loathes Nazi Germany he is speaking nothing but the truth. It is_ecr= tainly not possible to have any love for a system which tramples on the rights of smaller nations, which dismembered Czechoslovakia and Jaid Poland in a bath of blood, contrary to every assurance and promise which have now been proved by the event perjured from the very outset. He fells the truth with regard to the Poles when he admits that they are not cowards, but when he speaks of his victory over them as a victory of valour at the expense of their
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.