When Herr Hitler makes his expected speech before the Reichstag, either on Thursday or Friday, he will already know the altitude of the British Government towards the peace offensive which he launched following the capture of Warsaw. For that reason it may be a very different oration feom what the world expects at the moment, for it has been suggested that if Mr. Chamberlain is as forthright in the House of Commons on the subject as Mr. Winston Churchill was in his broadcast on Sunday night Herr Hiller will know beforehand that his overtures for peace will be rejected. It is expected by some that if this is the ease he will desist from his peace offensive. That does not appear to be very likely, for he has to consider the psychological effect of a Peace offensive upon the people over whom, unfortunately, he rules. It is just as necessary, now, as it has been all along, to convince the' propaganda-fed German people that they are indeed victims of aggression, and that the Reich has been fighting only in self-defence. The vamped up tales of atrocities by Poles against Germans in the Press campaign which preceded the invasion of Poland was necessary for the same purpose. Some sort of thin veneer of alleged right has {o cover the forays of the German Government, and it will be necessary for Herr Hitler to formulate his peace terms, so that, if they are rejected, he will be able to show his people how his own pacific ideas are thwarted by the Allies who are bent upon the destruction of the German nation. With such a fiction he will hope to whip the whole Germany into a state of indignation which will bring to him a rather warmer support for war than it is alleged is apparent within the confines of his country. He is not likely then to abandon his peace offensive, for, even if he realizes there is little chance of its success, it still would have a certain propaganda value which could not lightly be disregarded. He has to continue endeavouring 10 fool the German people all the time, and one of the best methods of doing that at present is to delude them into thinking that instead of fighting a war of aggression they are indeed fighting in self-defence.
The firm attitude which the Allies have adopted, towards this latest manceuvre of Herr Hitler is reported to be seriously disconcerting official quarters in Berlin who, at any rate for a while, believed in the possibility of an early peace as a sequel to the German bluff. No other word can be used to describe this latest development. With a striking victory over the Poles—with, of course, the assistance of the Russians,—Herr Hitler' apparently hoped to impress Great Britain and France with the terrors of a continuation of war, and so to influence pub-ie opinion in those countries that their Governments would be obliged to adopt. a more amenable attitude towards him. The knowledge of the psychology of Britions and Frenchmen which Herr Hitler, and his advisers appear to possess is faulty in the extreme. Those two nations have been outrage ed to the core by German behaviour, first in precipitating war, and then in the manner of its conduct they are no longer to be bluffed, and if Mr. Chamberlain follows in his speech the lines of Mr. Winston Churchill in his Sunday broadeast—and it fs believed he will, for obviously the latter did not say what he did without the fore-Knowledge and consent of the Prime Minis-or,—he will merely be voicing the decision of the nation to stand firmly beside France in the rejection of any compromise which leaves the burglar in possession of his swag. The sword which Herr Hitler has forced into unwilling hands will not now be lightly laid aside. In view of the history of the last two years it is obvious that it cannot be. Even the assurance of Herr Hitler, the man of so many assurances, that there is no other outstanding question between himself, and the Alllies, except the. question of colonies, docs not alter the situation. In the first place it is impossible to believe him, and, in the second, a peace now would not prevent him indulging in precisely the same tactics direct ly he decided to bring the colonial issue to a head. It is not necessary in describing Herr Hitler to use the vehement words which Mr. Churchill used, but it may be pointed out that past perfidies permit of no belief that any guarantee which Herr Hitler, could give in his peace offensive as to the future could be of any value whatever.
That is the seriousness of the situation. The man whom a short year ago told the world that he had-no further territorial ambitions in Europe has with the assistance of Russia crushed and partitioned a gallant people. What possible faith can now be placed in a man who has dishonoured his word in such a fashion, and that not for the first time? Even if Herr Hitler were to restore Poland to her former integrity as a part of his peace terms, something quite unthinkable, it would not even then be possible to plice any faith in him whatever, except the faith that sooner or Tater he would again break his word. That being the case, fas it manifestly is, what peace of any durability can possibly be reached so long as he and his henchmen remain in power? The answer is obvious—none, and the issue now is not that of Poland alone but whether Europe and the world at large are to put a stop to this man's activities once and for all, or to submit to continual blackmail of the type with which the world has become all too familiar through his activities. By the time these lines appear in print, Mr. Chamberlain will have made known to the world the attitude of the British Government. If he declares its decision to continue the struggle until Herr Hiller and his regime is destroyed there will be no cause for surprise, even though there will be very real regret that this tragedy will have to be carried through fo the last hour of act. Despite that regret he will have behind him the support of the whole of the British Empire in the determination that this evil thing which has sprung up in Europe shall be rooted out once and for all. France will stand solidly beside Great Britain in that decision; attempts to drive a wedge between the two have failed miserably, and in their common peril they realize they face a system which were it allowed to prevail would rob them of all that liberty of which they have fought for centuries past. The issue is simple and straightforward. If peace of any permanency is to be brought to a horribly distracted world the activities of Herr Hitler and his accomplices have to be stopped, and the wrongs which they have com-mitied righted. That cannot be done by acquiescing in any precarious peace which Herr Hitler now seeks to foist upon Europe.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.