It was on the occasion of Hitler's 52nd. birthday that he was greeted by his accomplices as the greatest man in the world, and the Italians, while conceding the point, claimed, however, that Mussoli "world's greatest statesman. As long as they are happy to believe such nonsense nobody is going much to worry about it, though with regard to Mussolini's claim it may be remarked that as a statesman he might make a very good market gardener. With regard to Hit-Jer his claims to greatness are based upon ideas of honour which completely took the world by surprise and assisted by an undoubtedly fine military machine has been able to achieve some remarkable successes. But they will continue to remain merely successes and as he cannot hope ultimately to win the war, they are of but temporary significance and must be regarded as such. It is in the role of forecaster that Hitler does not appear to be doing so well. He told Dr. Rauschning in one of his famous conversations on the subject of the invasion of England In less than eight hours we shall break through to their coast... The days of Great Britain's might at sea is past. Aircraft and ihe U-boat have turned surface fleets into the obsolete playthings of the wealthy demoeracies. They are no longer a serious weapon in decisive warfare.
Adolf, the insignificant corporal in the last war, may have learnt something of military science, though there is ground for believing that all he does is to form the major conception of what he desires to do, after which the highly efficient German technical staff sees what can be done about it. Very often they discover that nothing can be done, and time and again his plans have had to be "abandoned. But whatever he may know out military affairs, he very apparently ys nothing of matters naval. The British the obsolete plaything of a wealthy ey, is maintaining a blockade of Germany under which from side to side in an endeavour to escape the' stranglehold which has been clamped down upon him. His latest venture into Russia is mainly because of the economic grip which has been fastened down upon him and the great need for foodstuffs and oil with which to carry on this war.
Indeed it is a matter for very considerable speculation as to whether Hitler is not in-bulging in a wild gamble, making huge inroads into his fuel and lubricating resources in the hope that he will be able to lay hands upon Russian supplies, before his own dwindle to a mere shadow of what they were when he first embarked upon this war. Fighting such as is going on in Russia requires enormous quantities of oil and the probabilities are that Hitler is now using it at a much greater rate that it can be supplied, and that correspondingly increased inroads are being made into German reserves. Ever since the war began Hitler has had it brought home to him that the days of the surface vessel are by no means numbered and that neither the aeroplane, nor the U-boat, nor the two combined have prevented the British Navy retaining command of the sea even in the narrow waters of the Mediterranean, where conditions should be in favour of the weapons Hitler so patently favours.
His ideas upon the subject of a lightning invasion of Britain are by no means uninteresting. He allows the Germans eight hours to break through to the British coast. It is but natural to ask what he thinks the British Navy would be doing while he was ferrying his men across the waters from the Continent, or for that matter what the R.A.F, would be up to. It is apparent that Hitler has a tendency to simplify matters overmuch, and he seems to think that he has only to imagine an invasion of Britain for it to become an accomplished fact. When the time comes for any such venture, if ever it does, Hitler will find that the British do not see eye to eye with him in the matter and that the invaders will receive a remarkably warm welcome. The past year has permitted the organization of the defence of Great Britain in a manner never before known to history, and what might have been possible twelve months ago is clearly not so now, and the chances are that instead of going down in history as the greatest man in the world, he will do so merely as the greatest nuisance.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.