One of the claims which the Reich has s0 energetically put forward since the outbreak fof' the war is that she has been made the victim of aggression because of the fact that, following her invasion of Poland, Great Britain. land France declared war upon her. In a most important speech this week, President Roosevelt roundly condemned the aggressor nations, and the German "Diplomatische Korrespondenz" immediately applied the cap where it obviously tied. In endeavouring to reply to the President's strictures, that journal appealed to him to withhold criticism of a "Germany defending Iner vital living space," and suggests that JAmerica having "succeeded with one exception in keeping imperialists out of the Western hemisphere" should sympathize with Germany fin her similar struggles. Thus instead of seeking {o pin the blame upon the Allies as aggress-lors the "Diplomatische Korrespondenz" accepts the reproof, and then proceeds blandly to talk Jabout Germany's vital living space. That it is to be inferred from recent events includes Denmark, Norway, and possibly Sweden together with the other countries she has succeded in raping, and any other land upon which Herr Hitler may set his covetous eyes. It is not likely that the plaintive note of the German journal will have any effect upon President Roosevelt, Jor indeed upon any neutral observer of all that going on' in Europe. The facts stand out so patently, the responsibility of Germany for what is happening has so definitely been fixed tapen her that there can be no possible Jeseape from the obloquy which has thus becom her lot. The "Diplomatische Korrespondenz" 1s guilty of Just that same type of nauseating hypocrisy which has marked the declarations of many of the Reich's leaders, and to seek to find parallel in American history for what Germany is seeking to do now is to search for Jsomething which does not exist. The Reich has been weighed by the public opinion of the world. It stands condemned as the ruthless suppressor of weak nations, denying them their Fights, persecuting them when they have been conquered for the time being, and perpetrating the grossest brutalities imaginable, and all this jin the sacred name of Lebensraum A Birthday On Saturday fifty one years ago a major catas-Itrophe befell Europe, for on April 20, 1889, Adolf Hitler was born. Throughout Germany, and wher-lever loyal Nazis are gathered together, there will an enthusiastic observance of the day, but jin large areas of Europe, in Austria, Czechoslo~ Wwakia, Poland, Denmark and Norway there will Joe nothing but execration for the man whose ruthlessness has caused so much suffering and promises 10 cause still more. it must be remem-ered that during the negotiations prior to the Joutbreak' of war Herr Hiler told his hearers that he was then fitly years of ago and pre-erred to fight now rather than wait until he was fifty-five, and if ever there were a signi ficant expression of the man's will to fight it was surely that. This will be the frst birthday he celebrates under war conditions of his own Hashioning. His accomplices as well as his. dupes, that, as he himself called it, "sheep headed nation, will misguidedly rejoice that their Fuehrer has lived another twelve months of life.
[They do not realize now. and may not do for some time to come the hideous plight in which he has criminally plunged them, nor the wild gamble which he has undertaken for the purpose of satisfying his megalomaniac ambitions. That realization will come sometime in the future when ill-clad, under-nourished people, Jalready suffering considerably under the preci fous Nazi balms of peacclime, are called upon stil further to tighten belts already drawn in by [the determination of their leaders to sacrifice butter for guns, to transform much needed food-Jstufls into explosives and munitions of war. Tt will be a bitter awakening for the Germans. when they begin to understand all the suffering. nfiieted upon their generation by a man whose perfidies are without parallel in the long list of Iperfidious men the world has known. They may {or the time being celebrate his birthday. There will be many millions who will regard the day jas an evil anniversary, and, instead of wishing him the usual good wish, will hope that by the ime his next birthday comes round he will Jobserve it in the disgrace of defeat.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.