From Ankata comes the report that Hiller is about to make an offer of peace to Britain. If it turns out to be true and Hitler really does make an offer to Britain. it will be the most staggering piece of impertinence which this war has yet seen, The world has become so accustomed to the Nazi technique+that such a peace offer was fully expected, and within recent weeks spokesmen of the Democracies have gone to some lengths to phasize that it will never even be considered. Mr. Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister. only recently stated: "We have but one aim and one single. irrevocable purpose. We are resolved to destroy Hitler and every vestige of the Nazi regime. From this nothing will turn us. Nothing. We will never parley. We will never negotiate with Hitler or any of his gang." That statement would seem to be definite enough; it could hard~ ly be more emphatic. It is therefore amazing that the Nazi leader should imagine for a moment that any offer of peace he might make to Britain tomorrow would so much as tempt the War Cabinet to relax the Empire's efforts for a second. Hitler, of course, judges promises by a different standard from that upheld by the Democracies. To him a promise, a sacred com-mirment, means nothing more than a device to pull wool over the eyes of a powerful neigh-hour, It is something to be repudiated or ignored the moment it proves to his advantage to do so. His behaviour to Soviet Russia is the latest proof he has given of this treachery. Only two months ago he was bound to Moscow by a non-aggression treaty; today he is at war with the Soviets. Who can believe anything he swears to, in the face of his past record? Owing to his own folly, Hitler has got the German nation into a most difficult position. In Russia the German armies are making slow progress at almost crippling cost. In the rear of these armies the Royal Air Force is making tremendous ravages in Germany's factories and lines of communications, Hitler's hopes of postponing the starvation of his swollen empire by seizure of the harvests of the Ukraine have fallen through. His attempt to choke Britain by his war against shipping has recoiled on his own head. His "blockade" is failing, while the British have learnt from his tactics the way to intensify their own blockade of Europe. Mr. C. R. Attlee disclosed in the House of Commons that during July the British destroyed. damaged. or pus out of action no fewer than 69 ships in the North Sea and the Atlantic, totalling 291.000 tons, while in the Mediterranean 23 Axis ships were destroyed, totalling 158,000 tons, not counting another 30 ships which Mr. Attlee described as having been "considerably damaged." This means a loss to the Axis of nearly 450,000 tons of shipping—a much greater loss to them than a similar loss would be to Britain, when the proportion of the mercantile fleets possessed by the belligerents is taken into consideration. Hitler is losing. He therefore wants peace. In Soviet Russ: a his vast armies are being held by an enemy who powerful numerically and, in equipment as they are themselves, The Luftwaffe has shown itself to be quite incapable of preventing British raids on the heart of the Nazi war machine. Hitler's diplomatic offensives have lost their sting, since the force he previously used to back them up has diminished. And at this time, of all others he appears to be seeking to make peace!
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.