The report from London, to the effect that rumours from German sources are sedulously being spread to the effect that the Allies are planning to violate Holland's neutrality, gives but another example of the manner in which the Reich sticks so closely to its old technique. The Allies are going to do nothing of the sort, for the obvious reason that they are by no means anxious to do anything which might alienate neutral sympathy from them in the first instance, or to extend their military com-Imitments unnecessarily in the second, When the round terms in which President Roosevelt has denounced the invasion of Denmark and Norway by the Germans is remembered, it must be plain to all thinking people that the last thing the Allies would seek to do would be to bring down the same condemnation upon their own heads. There are times when moral considerations completely outweigh purely material This is one of them. German behaviour in this matter must always be suspected as preparing the way for precisely such an act on the part of the Reich as it claims the Allies are contemplating, and in this connection the German Government has so often "signalled its punches" that the only matter of speculation concerning what is likely to happen to the Lowlands is as to when Herr Hitler will decide to strike, That he will do so may be taken for granted, for Herr Hitler is prone rather to the rough and ready methods of the house painter than to the finesse which is so necessary at the present time if some of the reproach, which at present sticks to him so patently, is not to besmirch the Allies. That the Allies will go to the assistance of the Lowlands, if they are attacked, and request it, has already been made known by the declarations of the heads of both allied governments, but neither of them is so foolish as to take any step which would incur for them the severe criticism of those nations with whom they desire to be on the best possible of relationships. There is only one factor which may lead Herr Hitler to hold his hand, and that is the fact, which has so clearly been proved in Norway, that the extension of German activities makes the Reich more get-at-able, and the more it does that the better will the Allies be pleased.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.