Aug. 9.
Reference was made in these columns yesterday to the let German peace felts 3nd the impossibility of their being accepted, but now that a full description of the proposed ferme are available, further comment fe ticated. "Coming a they do from. Ankara, possibly the only capital in the world where Fuch peace feelers could. conveniently" be Issued, "the alleged terms may serve to show that Hitler would like a peace, but iti clearly Just the type of compromise that the British Government would be completely out of thelt wits If they ever thought of accepting. them. ils stated that after attaining his objective in Russlo~and that itself te becoming daly increasingly. "doubttal,—Hitier will cease hostilities onl trois counting' on public opinion in the United States to force Britain halt the slaughter, and accept his peace terms, Those appear in another column. But briefly they.may be summed up aa designed give Hider very much the Dest of the ain, and to place Germany in. such a Posttion that sanctions inthe" shape of Bicckade could never gain be imposed. pon er The seizure of western Russia up to th: Urals would provide Germany" with control of the granary of Europe, and reduce Russia the Yale of second rate power by the Geprivation of the greater portion of her natural resources." the establishment femicautonomous' Poland, to Dean ally. of Germany, cannot possibly be accepted. This war can only: be ended upon the restoration {eithat country of complete and untrammelled freedom, Not wil Great 'Britain and. the United States accept the doctrine of German freedom of action in eastern Europe. They Have seen in the past three years to, what purposes that freedom has een turned, and the idea of the Balkans under German' projestion—wehich. jo merely' another word for serfdom and. expioitation,—cannot be accept able to the democracies who are fighting the Jeause of freedom for all peoples for work out their own destinies in. peace and security The same remaric applies to the Proposal of partial restoration of Yugoslavia and Greece Eecording. to the. nationalities of the inine= Bitants andthe granting: to them of 2 reticted autonomy. aly, is to be completely betrayed under these terms, She wil have to surrender Abyssinia and 'Tunis, but retain Libya. "All other Italian aspirations are apparently to be thrown overboard, And finally Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, and Prance, with the exception of Alsace-Lorraine will' be evacuated by the Germans, while filler pro= Poses to be good enough #3 promise that fer-Fiories" within the British "sphere and the Empire will be tx: no way altered. 'The Sapanese will. probably nate that, in_ this abandonment of the original' German cairn sphere embracing Burope and Africa, and the suggestion. of much smaller amotvions, Hiller if preparing to do" nothing for his Japanese Ally. He can do nothing, but the fact that he proposes' no. reward' forthe Japanese for their adherence 10 his Fickelty pact indicates, a2 clearly as in the case aly that, the' Japanese will be thrown over" board if Hities can only get the compromise for which he is apparently now after, is og wil that the Japenese should realize that Hider means nothing to them, and: that they stand completely fendhess inthe world st the present time, when but for the rashness of their policies they could stand rich in friendships, and prosperous as. the neutral, industrial country able to supply great part of the world's markets.
Perhaps the most striking feature of the past week is the bombing of Berlin by Russian aircraft. Not much is known concerning the magnitude of the two raids, but as M. Lozovsky has promised that there shall be more of them it is possible that ultimately the fact that Russia is able to raid the enemy capital may produce a psychological effect which may not be at all to Hilter's liking. Another interesting development has been the manner in which the German propaganda machine has been operating. When it was realized that the German armies were being held by the Russians, and it was impossible to record territorial gains for German civilians to record on their maps, the story was spread about that the German aim was not territorial gain but the annihilation of the Russian armies. The change of story was significant, as indicating a breakdown of the original German plans on the one hand, and as paration for the new type of yarn witt Goebbels was seeking to continue. the delusion of the German people, With the ground so prepared the Germans came out with the astounding claim last week. that over four million Russians had been accounted for, of which three million were alleged to have been killed. Tt is known that when the invasion started the Russians had' 4,500,000 men available in western Russia' with which to resist the Germans. Certain' eserves are known to have been utilized by the Russians, and according to the Germans
struggle quite a humber of times. The posi~' the last of those, have been, thrown into, the tion then seems tobe that if the German claims are correct the Russian army has been. almost completely wiped out and that what the Germans are at present doing, must be something akin to "shadow boxing," and not! even making progress at that, That, of course, absurd and the fact is that the Russian armies which the Germans claim to have destroyed are very much still in existence, and if the German story is to be believed holding their enemy at all points save, perhaps, in the Ukraine and along the shore of the Black Sea. But the Germans have shown themselves throughout this campaign such arrant liars that it is quite impossible to believe one word they say.
Russian claims on the other hand are much more moderate. They allege that some 1,500,000 Germans have been accounted for slain, wounded or taken prisoner. The large number of wounded, passing back to Germany in train after train has caused the German authorities some concern lest the sight of them should have an unfortunate effect upon German moral. They have consequently resorted to moving their casualties at night or by barges along the rivers in order that. the general public shall be unable to get a Feal idea_of the huge wastage in human material Germany is suffering as a result of this latest exhibition of Hitler's military' genius. If the Russian estimates are correct, and there is every reason to believe that: {hey are, then the Nazis appear to have lost approximately one-third of the effectives with which they commenced the invasion Russia, That is indeed a severe blow, and: it the Russians manage-to hold the fourth offensive, which the Germans are reported to planning, the result may.prove to.be
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.