The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 3rd, 1941. THE OMINOUS LULL

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 266, 3 February 1941, Page 4

The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 3rd, 1941. THE OMINOUS LULL

REPORTS from American observers in Germany that the Nazis plan a desperate win or lose attack on the Island, fortress of Britain, appears to be borne out by the hysterical outburst of the: obsessed maniac who has hypnotised the nation. The mcst recent tirade over the air from the Reich leader, reveals Hitler in the most dangerous light.

The fact that all his vaunted air attacks have come to nought; that the Island of Freedom is capable of striking back in a manner which is paralysing his plans for orderly invasion; that the armies of his partner in crime are beingrouted in Africa and Albania, and that the great American Democracy has now all but declared war, has brought about a state of mind which makes his utterances resemble those; cf .a caged animal. Were the British peoples to hear their war leader, Hon. Winston Churchill, addressing the nation in the same hysterical, undisciplined and amazing manner the only conclusion would be: that a maniac sat a,t the head of the Empire, and the sooner he was unseated the better for them. But in Nazi Germany it is a different taie. The octopus of Nazism has too deep a grip. For years the children have been taught the same ideas, and on leaving their education behind them the Gestapo see to it chat no original thought is permitted. Germany is too far along the paVi to know any turning back, and a nation with the war spirit of 5£ million men in arms can only be taught by bitter experience. It is therefore very patent that Britain must in. the next few weeks (perhaps days) undergo her fiercest baptism of fire. The mentality of the German leader makes it clear that in his last desperate throw he will stake all the power, all the destructive mechanism,, and all the dia-

bolical methods of warfare he has at his command, in this his greatest bid for world, domination. But there is not one man or child (for that matter) who feels that he will succeed, and the same spirit is endorsed the wide Empire over. Britain is now steeling herself for the blow which she knows must fall, and which yet she knows equally well, must fail. But. the sacrifice and the awful consequences will be there., and we thank God that the British people are fittest in the world 'to take it,' and in the end to give the invader the only mcdieine he understands—a taste of his own doctrine, the force cf the strong arm of war—in this case however weilded. in the cause of justice, freedom and humanity.