GAUNTLET DOWN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20028, 29 August 1939, Page 5

GAUNTLET DOWN

NAZI CHALLENGE DANZIG AND CORRIDOR DALADIER—HITLER NOTES FIGHTERS IN LAST WAR. GRIM LESSON RECALLED (Reed. Aug. 29, 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, Aug. 28. Berlin messages state that Herr Hitler threw down the gauntlet and challenged' the world lor Danzig and the Polish Corridor in his letter to the Premier of France, M. Daladier. Rejecting M. Dailadier’s 'appeal to the Fuehrer on Friday for one more direct bidl for peace, Herr Hitler said: “I have made a clear demand that Danzig and the Corridor must return to Germany. I see ruo means of moving Poland to a peaceful solution as she feels she cannot be attacked under the protection of her guarantors. “I would ihave little hope of an honourable future for my people if, urider such circumstances, we were not determined to solve these questions one way or another. "If (fate then forces our two nations to fight, it would be from different motives. 1 would fight with my people to rectify a wrong; others would fight ito maintain that injustice. I believe that Poland would suffer most because, regardless of the outcome of a war, the Polish State would' be obliterated one way or another.”

Paris reports that the letter which M. iDalladier sent to Herr Hitler con-, eluded; “You and I were fighters at the front in the last war and. therefore (know the abhorrence and condemnation of the devastation of wars left behind! in, the people’s conscience. The concept which I am able to form of Your Excellency’s role as one

leading the German people on the path of peace towards the completion of (the task in the joint work of civilisation induces me to request a reply to this proposal.

“If French and German blood flows anew, as it did 25 years ago, in a still longer and more murderous war, then each of the two nations will fight confident in its own victory, but destruction and barbarity will be the surest victors.”

Paris reports that the city to-day was buzzing with rumours that M. Daladier was again sending a letter to Herr HLtler urging him not to close the door to negotiation. It was.also rumoured in Paris that new German proposals had been sent to London and Paris.

The publication of the HitlerDaladier letters under huge headlines in the Berlin press surprised Germans who are unaccustomed' to being so importantly informed.

German children in high spirits today found most of the schools closed or occupied by reservists. Mothers, less happy, faced the first day of the use of ration cards.

Reports from 'Berlin state that restaurants in future will have restricted menus not exceeding 10 dishes. Bread, flour, fruit and vegetables are excluded from the rationing System. Special permits are needed to get shoes resoled.

The railways are now cleared’ for “important traffic.”

The Berlin correspondent of f.he Associated Press of Great Britain says that meat is limited to 25 ounces and sugar to 10 ounces per person weekly, dairy products and coffee to two ounces daily and milk to half a pint dally per person.