Oct, 10.
There are indications that, asa follow-up to Herr Hitler's speech of last Friday, there will be an energetic campaign for the purpose of endeavouring to persuade the democracies that, after all, their best interests, and those of Europe at large will be served by concluding a peace with the Reich as quickly as possible, and along the lines which have been indicated, Hence the talk that "if war continues Europe will be_irremediably lost to Bolshevism; National Socialism will succumb, but the Western Powers also," and the argument, that is now being put forward, that "for the sake of the common salvation of Europe," a speedy peace should be reached. Having betrayed everything ideological for which he stood, Herr Hitler is now faced with the fact that he has permitted Soviet Russia to come right up to the borders of the Reich, has given Moscow domination from the Baltic to the Black Sea in all those countries in which he proposed to be pre~ dominant, and has' permitted to arise eastern Europe a Power which but a few weeks ago he would never have tolerated. The thirty pieces of silver for which all this was done consist of rather less than halt Poland, the speedy conclusion of the Polish campaign and some problematical agreement concerning supplies which may or may not be forthcoming from Russia, dependent upon entirely how far that country is able to fulfil her agreement, and how Germany is able to pay for what she receives. Communism, which was latent beneath the terror, begins to stir afresh, and the German Government will find themselves handicapped in dealing with it for fear of antagonizing their very odd _bedfellow. The danger of Communism to Germany is a very real one; it may b come more real as the weeks and months of warfare, which appear to be ahead, progress, and-there are signs that in Germany itself there are those who see the writing fon the wall, and begin to realize the serious predicament in which the policies of Herr Hitler have landed the country. The situation is indeed serious for Herr Hitler and his following, for he has undons the work of the last six years and unloosed afresh in Germany the powers of Communism which he declared it was his holy mission to destroy.
'All this is a measure of his own desperation. He fears the outcome of the struggle with the Allies, and, searching high and low for assistance to avoid defeat, has made the pilgrimage to Canossa. He' has humbled: himself to the Kremlin, and now secks to impress the world that for the salvation, of Europe from the menace which he has brought into it, it is necessary to make peace with him. The threat may be expressed in other terms. Unless Europe agrees to a new order of his determination, it runs the risk of another new order of communistic dictation, Acceptance of his latest fait accompli is demanded at the risk of plunging the whole of Europe into the furnace of ideolo~ gical destruction, But against this it must be remembered that the Allies are equally determined to establish a new order in Europe, one in which perfidy shall be replaced with good faith, an order in which it will be possible again for the nations, to place some regard in the undertakings of one to the other, an order in which the rule of law shall again prevail. Shall such ideals be abandoned for a period while Herr Hitler seeks to digest what he has already bitten off and prepares himself for another onslaught upon the security of Europe, if not of the whole world? Is it not better to face the evils with which he threatens Europe, and fight until they are destroyed as they deserve to be? A Europe of Herr Hitler's fashioning can' be little worse than that envisioned by the Communists, and both of them from a democratic point of view are intolerable. One of the causes for Allied reluctance to take up arms against Herr Hitler was the risk that, should he be defeated, a revolution in Germany which would throw (Continued on page $1, col. 4)
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.