Hitler has, in his latest speech in the Munich public house, clearly defined his relations with Mussolini. He intends to stick to him, and Mussolini must realize by now that he is playing Sinbad to Hitler's Old-man-of-the-sea. Whether he will ever be able to get rid of the incubus he has taken up remains to be seen. The probabilities are that Britain and her Allies will have to free him. Hitler's speech follows along usual lines. There is a review of the history of National-Socialism,—the man never seems to be able to vary his themes,—the usual denunciation of the Versailles Treaty,—which comes oddly from the man who has imposed Such heavy burdens upon France, exceeding by far anything which the victorious Allies imposed upon Germany after 1918,—and finally the same old promises of victory. There is also the threat of intensified submarine warfare against'Great Britain, with the story circulated a few days ago about thousands of small submarines having been built during the winter for the coming spring. "That tale needs to be accepted with some reserve. It may indeed have been possible to build U-boats with the speed of a motor car assembly line, but crews cannot be trained with the same rapi¢ and thousands of submarines require of thousands of highly trained men.
It would be idle to believe for one moment that Hitler is not planning some such stroke as he says, but doubt can properly be expressed as to whether it will assume the enormous dimensions which he told his hearers. In fine there may be some degree of truth and a great deal of "ballyhoo" in this latest outburst of the criminally minded leader of the Germans, who would not hesitate, and has not hesitated to mislead his people just as he has sought so successfully to betray others. Generally speaking Hitler's speech was primarily designed for home consumption. It contains little of interest to the people of the democracies opposed to him, for what he said on Monday he has said times out of number, and the question must naturally be asked as to why he made this speech at this particular juncture. It must surely be obvious to him that a people like the British who have stood up so wonderfully under the strokes of the Luftwaffe are not likely to be intimidated by the Fee-fo-fi-fum in which the German witch-doctor indulges before every one of his moves. And his latest utterances will fail of any effect which he fancied they might have had. If this last speech is another of his contributions to the' war of nerves, Hitler is quite obviously failing in his technique for he produces nothing new, rattles the same old bones and pulls the usual rhetorical grimaces.
tion is e now than it has ever been.
The "of the matter is that Hitler's posi-
"The occupation of the inoffensive neutrals gàve him a chance to plunder them. From that a certain temporary relief from the effects of the British blockade resulted. That has come to an end, and many of Hitler's recent movements have been nothing more {han the squirming of a man who realizes that the toils of the British Navy are being woven closer and ever closer around him. The blockade is beginning to have its effect. An exhausted Europe surrounds a Germany which is being inevitably reduced to the same condition. It is more than likely that, within the next two months, or so, Hitler will make some desperate attempt to break the bonds in which he is held. Gibe as he ray time is on the side of Britain and her Allies, and unless Hitler can launch a decisive stroke, and that quickly, he faces ultimate defeat as certain as the setting of the sun. His boast that numerous British warships are Theld up in the Mediterranean, and large British forces in Africa is undoubtedly true, But he dares not tell his people that 4,000,000 men are under arms in Britain, fully equipped ana ready to strike when the opportunity is deemed ripe. Master of the lie, and a genius in the handling of the half-truth, Hitler is deceiving his own people He roy be deceiving himself as well, though there must. be men around him who realize that the day of reckoning must come, that it will not be a reckoning of victory for them, but of an-Other crushing defeat. The resources of Britain and her Allies, and the assistance to be forthcoming from tne United States have not yet reached their peak. Those of Germany are declining, and time will show that. the race will not have teen fo the swift, but to those who were slow to engage in war and even then at a time when they were not prepared for it.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.