NEMESIS

Evening Star, Issue 24324, 13 October 1942, Page 3

NEMESIS

THE WHINING NOTE OF FEAR HITLER SEES DOOM APPROACHING (British Official Wireless.) (Roc. noon.) RUGBY, Oct. 12. “ To show any weakness to such a man as Hitler is only to encourage him in further atrocities, and you may bo assured no weakness will he shown him,” declared Mr Churchill, speaking at Edinburgh to-day when the freedom of the City was conferred on him. Ho was referring to the chaining of prisoners of war. Mr Churchill declared that U-boat warfare still remained the greatest problem of the United Nations, but there was no reason why it should not bo solved by the prodigious measures of offence and defence and the replacements on which the British Commonwealth and above all the United States wore engaged. August and September had been the least bad months since January.' They had seen uew building of merchantmen which substantially outweighed the losses; they had seen the greatest tonnage of British bombs dropped on Germany; they covered the most numerous safe arrivals of United States troops in Britain; they marked tlic definite growth of Allied air superiority over Germany, Italy, and Japan. “ It is not my habit to encourage light or vain expectations, but these are solid and remarkable facts. The army in Egypt is confident that it will stand an unbreakable barrier between Rommel and the Nile Valley, while the fleet is once again confident it will stand between the Continental tyrant and the dominion world. The whole country is pulling together as never before in all its history.” Mr Churchill said the enemies had been more talkative recently. Ribbcutrop, Hitler, and Goering had all made speeches which revealed with considerable frankness their state of mind. There was one note ringing through all these speeches. It could be clearly hoard above their customary boastings and threats. It was the dull, low whining note of fear. These speeches were all the speeches of men conscious of their guilt and conscious of the law. How different from the tone of 1940, when France was struck down, Western Europe beaten down, and Eastern Europe subjugated. Mussolini had hastened to stab us in the back, and Britain stood the sole champion in arms for freedom and the inheritance of mankind. Evidently something had happened,in the past two years to make these evildoers feel there may be another side to the account. The most curious part of Hitler’s speech was_ his complaint that no one pays sufficient attention to his victories. “It strikes a chill into his marrow, because in his heart he knows that all his tremendous victories and his vast conquests have not prevented his fortunes from declining. “ His prospects have darkened to an immeasurable degree in the last two years. Apparently this bad man sees quite clearly the shadow of slowly and remorselessly approaching doom, and rails at fortune for mocking - him with the glitter of fleeting success.” Mr Churchill declared that all occupied Europe was seething with the spirit of revolt and revolution,: Hatred of the German race and name burned fiercer daily in the hearts of the people. His soldiers dwelt among populations who would kill them one at a time when the chance came. FEAR-INSPIRED TERRORISM. The British commando raids on different parts ,of the enormous western European coastline, together with the mounting scale of acts of retribution by the subjected peoples, had caused Hitler in fear and spite to turn upon the prisoners of war in his camps., “ I always expected that this war would become worse in severity as the guilty Nazis felt doom closing upon thorn. In the west we have seen many savage and bestial .acts, but nothing comparable with the wholesale massacres, not only of soldiers, but of women and children, which characterised Hitler’s invasion of Russia and eastern Europe, where tens of thousands were murdered in cold blood. For every execution in the west Hitler ordered at least 200 in eastern and central Europe. For instance, in the first few days after Kiev fell 54,000 of its citizens were murdered. Mr Churchill said there was another reason for Hitler’s large-scale maltreatment of British prisoners. He wished to throw a new topic into the arena of world discussions in order to divert men’s eyes from the evident failure so far of his second campaign in Russia. The heroic defence of Stalingrad, the fact that the splendid Russian armies are everywhere intact, unbeaten, unbroken, and even coun-ter-attacking with amazing energy along the whole front from Leningrad to the Caucasus, the fearful losses suffered by the German troops, the near approach of another Russian winter —all these grim facts cast their freezing shadow upon the German people, already wincing under the repeated and increasing impact of British bombing. The German people were turning a stony gaze upon the leader who had brought all this upon them. Already Goering had made haste to point out that the decision to invade Russia was Hitler’s alone, and that the generals were only carrying out his orders. Responding to the cheers at the end of his speech, Mr Churchill said: “ Whatever may lie before us, we shall not flinch. I am sure we shall rise superior through all our trials, and all our duties.” ITALIAN SUBMARINE'S CLAIM LONDON, October 11. The ; Rome radio says that an Italian submarine operating in the Atlantic sank the British liner Oronsay.