What with the tour of the European capitals by Mr. Sumner Welles, as personal representative of President Roosevelt, and the meeting on Monday between Signor Mussolini and Herr Hitler in the Brenner Pass, itis apparent that the expected peace move by the Reich and Italy is being ushered in with plenty of ballyhoo, the whole thing savouring more of showmanship than anything else. That there is an earnest desire for peace in Europe cannot be gain said for one moment, but that desire is inspired by entirely different reasons. Herr Hitler wishes peace in order to enjoy his ill-gotten gains the Allies desire it only when Europe shall be safe from any further aggression on the part of Germany: Italy desires it because she would much rather get on with the work of economic rehabilitation than be kept continually on the threshold of war, while the rest of Europe want it lest they should be dragged into the maelstrom out of which they so greatly desire to keep. Herr Hitler's technique is well known by now. These dramatic secret meetings between rulers, these hints of the terrible things to come if peace is not secured, and suggestions of further surprises in the near future are all designed with the idea of making the flesh of the Allies creep. They are not likely to succeed. Of the hundred and one things which Signor Mussolini and Herr Hitler may have discussed, the most probable are the questions arising out of the possible Russian threat to the Balkans, the increase of German influence in Rumania, and the possibility of a better understanding being reached between Rome and Moscow. And then, of course, there is this latest peace offensive. It can be said without the slightest hesitation that if the reported peace terms prove in the ultimate event to be correct, there is now no better prospect for peace than there was when the Allies declared war on Germany following that nation's invasion of Poland. The determination of the Allies is that Herr Hitler shall not be allowed to get away with the fruits of his aggression, and until the leader of the Reich realizes that and is prepared to make reparation for all the evil he has done, the misery he has inflicted upon smaller peoples, there can be no alternative to the prosecution of the war with all the energy at the command of the Allies.
Then there is the continual rumour that the Rome-Berlin Axis is preparing a surprise, something akin to making bogies to scare children. The strengthening of the ties between Germany and Italy, or even the entry of Italy into the war as Germany's ally would not be a surprise calculated to have any particularly significant effect upon the international situation. Such an eventuality was fully appreciated when the Allies decided to go to war. The surprise came when Herr Hitler relieved Signor Mussolini of the necessity of honouring his commitments, and, were Italy now to take up arms against the Allies, a situation would be created by no means dissimilar to that which the Allies contemplated towards the end of last August. Should Herr Hitler succeed in bringing about more cordial relations between Italy and Russia, or even create that eastern European bloc of which there has been so much talk, it would amount to no such surprise as might affect the determination of the Allies to fight on until they have attained their war aims. If the eleven points for peace alleged to have been presented to Mr. Welles indeed represent the whole distance which Herr Hitler is prepared to go in his desire for peace, their official delivery to the Allies may be awaited with the completest confidence that they will be rejected. It is significant, however, that they represent some modification of those other terms which have been put forward by Herr Hitler before, and are to be taken as an indication that he is by no means as sure of the ultimate outcome of war as he would have the world believe.
It is not the Allies who are making these overtures for peace: it is Herr Hitler, and the more he modifies his terms the more is it to be believed that, while he would never admit a diplomatic defeat by a surrender of all that he has gained, he is prepared to go to very great lengths to avert the fate which he fully realizes awaits him. It is in the fear of defeat that these overtures are being planned, and these continual endeavours to find some sort of formula acceptable to the Allies are even now to be taken as an adequate measure of the man's desperation Unspectacular as this war has been up to the present, one important fact stands out prominently. The much vaunted blitzkrieg, so successful against smaller nations, cannot be undertaken against the Allies. They are already at their war positions, have had six months in which to perfect their dispositions, and are ready to hit back with just as much power as Germany, if not more. The time has long passed when Herr Hitler could have launched a lightning blow against the Allies, and there is more than a slight suspicion that he would dearly love to secure some sort of peace which might at some future date give him an opportunity of undertaking against the Allies what his preoccupation in Poland prevented him from doing. On the other hand it would be the crowning success of this man's evil career, if he were able to Eo to his people with any such peace as he apparently proposes, which would justify his boast that he had got what he wanted and yet saved them from the terrors of a big war. That will be denied him, denied him because he and his advisers have utterly failed to understand the spirit animating the Allied peoples, and their determination that the sword shall not be laid aside until the manifest wrongs he has committed are rectified, and Europe enabled to look forward to a period of peace in which to repair all the damage which the satisfaction of a megalomaniac ambition has created. The absence of that jingo spirit which was so marked in Great Britain in the early weeks of the last year has been misinterpreted by the Reich. Its leaders have failed to realize the truth of Kipling's advice regarding the British to beware his country when that country grows polite. There is a cold, bitter, calculating hatred of Herr Hitler, his system and all that they have done, an implacable determination that these things shall be stopped, and a readiness to avoid no sacrifice to see that this shall come about. Until Herr Hitler is prepared to surrender his swag he cannot hope for peace. There could be no hope for peace in the future without the destruction of the military machine which he created for the furtherance of his policies, and there can be no hope for a new order in Europe until Herr Hitler has drunk of the bitter cup which the Allies have brewed for him.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.