Joachim von Ribbentrop, in a statement to the German and foreign press this morning, declareely "The Reich Government know yes: terday that Great Britain had told the Belgian and Dutch Governments that the landing of British troops or Belgian and Dutch sell was imminent, "Great Britain and France had dropped their masks. After the failure. in Norway, the alarm was' alvan in the Mediterranean in order fo veil the true aim—an attack on the Ruhr district in Germany through Belgium and Holland, "who Fuhrer was not willing to expose the Ruhr region to another Franco-British aggression. He, therefore, decided to protect the neutrality of Belgium and Holland against Franco-British aggression with the German army. speak to Groat Britain Herr von Ribbentrop concluded, "in the only language their Fulers seem to understand, and settle them once and for all."—Keuter, Minister antiounced that England was now in a position, through a change of circumstances, of shifting the main force of her navy to the Mediterranean, and that British and French units were already on their way to Alexandria.
"The Mediterranean has now been made the centre of British and French Propaganda. This was meant, on the tone hand, to put a veil over the defeat in Scandinavia and the loss of prestige suffered before their own People and the world. On the other hand, an impression was meant 10 be created that now the Balkans had been echasen as the next theatre of war against. Germany.
"In Cad, however, the apparent shifting of British and French forces to the Mediterranean served quite different purpose. It nothing else but a manceuvre or deflection fon a very great scale In order to Secelve Germany about the true intention of the next Anglo-French move,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.