The memorandum opens with the statement of the German Government to justify the termination of the Naval Agreement on the ground that the attitude of. His Majesty's Government showed they now held the view that in whatever part of Europe Germany might be involved in a war-like conflict, Britain must always be hostile to Germany, even where British interests were not touched, After stating that Britain could only be hostile to Germany if the latter committed an act of aggression, the memorandum emphasises that the political decisions involving the guarantees by Britain to certain countries could only operate if the countries concerned were attacked by Germany.
"I do not believe Japan, deeply entangled in China—nay, bleeding from every pore in China—her strength ebbing away in a wrongful and an impossible task, and with the whole weight of Russia upon her in North China, will wish to make war upon the British Empire until she sees how matters go in Europe.
"Therefore, we should approve both of the patience and the firmness of the Government towards the vexatious problems in the Far East."
He said that he took a serious view of the situation which faced Europe in the next three months, simply because he doubted if, even now, the position was properly understood by Germany.
It was indispensable, Mr. Churchill maintained, that it should be published to the world that an attack on Poland would be a decisive and irrevocable event.
An act of violence against the Polish. Republic, whether organised from within Danzig or from without, could not fail to raise an issue of world importance.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.