Lebrun, President of France, to the offer of the rulers of Belgium and the Netherlands to use their good offices in seeking to arrange a peace between the Allies, and Herr Hitler, follow the lines which were to be expected. His Majesty's does not close the door to all possibility of even at this juncture negotiating a peace, but he, as also the French President, has made it quite clear that there has been no modification of the Allied stand in this matter that the larger purpos: s for which Britain and her Ally are fighting are to secure that Europe is redeemed from a perpetually recurring fear of German aggression, to enable the peoples of Europe to preserve their independence, and liberties, and to prevent a resort to force instead of pacific means for the settlement of international disputes. Should the Belgian and Netherlands' rulers be able to communicate any proposals of such a character as to afford a real prospect of achieving the purpose describ: d, His Majesty was able to say at once that his Government would give them their most earnest consideration. That leaves the matter up to Herr Hitler. While he has not yet replied to the communication of last week, he did in fact, in the course of his Munich speech indicate the possibility of definitely turning the proposals down. The situation is in fact no different now from what it was when Herr Hitler embarked upon his ill-fated peace offensive. Nothing whatever has transpired to indicate that there has been any change whatever in the Hitlerian heart, or that he is willing to forswear future use of the military machine which he has created for the purpose of imposing his own will upon neighbouring states, if not upon the whole of Europe. That he may seek to wrest some advantage from the Belgian and Netherlands' communication may be taken for granted, and the least that can be expected is that he will seek by some adroit move to throw the responsibility for the continuance of the war upon Allied shoulders. He has already attempted to do so in the past and has failed egregiously, but that is no reason why he should not try again. The earnest desire of King Leopold and Queen Wilhelmina for an early termination of the hostilities is perfectly well understood and sympathized with, but it has been made quite apparent that unless some scheme can be devised whereby the continual fear of German aggression can be banished for ever, peace will not be obtainable. Herr Hitler cannot be left with the fruits of his sudden onslaught on Poland. To permit that would be a definite encouragement for further similar forays in the future, which would always be a probability so long as he is left in power. He can give no guarantees for future good behaviour which can possibly be accepted, and the case for the Allies is that they owe it as much to che subjugated nations, to Belgium and Holland as much as to themselves that this struggle shall not cease until a reasonable degree of security is again returned to Europe.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.