Whenever Hitler makes a speech, such as the one he did in the Kroll Opera House in Berlin on Monday, either one, or the other of the two Italian back-chat comedians, Signor Gayda, or Signor Ansaldo, can be confidently expected to underline what was or was not said. On this occasion the task has fallen upon the shoulders of the former, and in the "Giornale d'Italia" he now declares that Hitler will make no more peace offers, and that from now on any peace initiatives will have to come from Britain. That was probably written more for the sake of home consumption in Italy than with any idea of making any valuable contribution to the con-duet of the war, for it is eminently desirable that, if Italian forces cannot secure successes, the gains achieved by the Germans in assisting Mussolini from the mess he got himself into in the Balkans should be emphasized as mutual. It is true that in his speech Hitler said nothing about peace. What could he possibly have said? When his appeal of last year for Great Britain and her Allies "to return to reason" was so contemptuously rejected, he fully realized that, if he laid himself out again for a similar rebuff, it would certainly be administered.
Britain wants nothing of peace until victory has made it possible to liquidate the iniquity ous system which Hitler is endeavouring to force upon Europe, and ultimately the world at large. There can be no question now of anything in the nature of a negotiated peace which would after all be no more than a temporary compromise. There will be no peace initiatives from Britain. She will continue to fight, along with those who feel like her, until Hitler does exactly what Signor Gayda says he will not do, namely sue for terms. The principle feature of those will be the disappearance of Nazism and Fascism, the restoration of the occupied countries of Europe to their former liberties, and an opportunity given the Germans themselves to recover a decent Government liberated from the soul deadening doctrines which Hitler has so successfully preached to them, If proof of the British attitude in this matter were required the refusal to entertain the Turkish offer of mediation with the rebel Iraq Government provides it. It is impossible to negotiate with a Government which but two weeks ago broke the terms of the Anglo-Iraq Alliance and ranged itself on the side of the Axis. Not until it has -been brought down, and those Iraqi known to-be loyal to their undertakings have been restored to power will it be possible to consider any suggestions of mediation between the two countries. It is quite clear that any Anglo-Iraq peace, which did not|ensure the safety of the oilfelds;-and the certainty that their products would not go to assist the very worried Hitler in fighting his war, could not' be at all acceptable, and the British attitude must be that either they continue to have the benefits of the Iraq oilfields, or that the latter shall be reduced to such a state that they shall be of no use to the enemy.
Should additional proof be wanted of Britain's attitude towards peace at this particular moment, the reaction to the ballan d'essai on the subject, published recently in the "Japan Advertiser" which created such a sensation in the United States, provides it. In America it was almost unanimously rejected as wholly unacceptable. In Britain it received but the merest passing notice. What so many people fail to understand is that until Britain with the aid of the United States' industry has built up a material superiority over the Germans there can be nothing in the nature of a decisive action one way or the other. On balance, up to the present moment, it may be safely concluded that Britain is in a more favourable position now than she was almost a year ago. The Germans already forced to nine months' more fighting than they originally anticipated, have snow been told by their leader of the possibility of hostilities lasting into next year. In the circumstances Hitler's abstention from talking of peace can be understood. For Signor Gayda, however, to talk as he has is just plain silly.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.