BRITISH WARNING

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20046, 19 September 1939, Page 7

BRITISH WARNING

LEAFLETS OVER GERMANY HALTING BRUTE FORCE NAZI RULERS’ TYRANNY PEOPLE URGED TO EIGHT (Eloc. Tel. Copyright—Uni tod Press Assn.) (British Official Wireless.) Reccl. 2.30 p.m. RUGBY, Sept. 17. The text of the second and third series of the leaflets distributed by the Royal Air Force aircraft over Germany, was issued by the Ministry of Information to-night. The second of the series, as already reported, contained the broadcast remarks by the British Prime Minister, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, to the German people on the night of the outbreak of war.

The third of the series of pamphlets reads as follows:

“Despite the efforts of all men of good will to avert the catastrophe, the Nazi Government has plunged the world into war. This war is a crime. The Germans, who are logical people, should make clear the distinction between the pretext on which their leaders started and the principles that have compelled the British and French democracies to defend Poland’s independence. “From the start, the British Government declared its belief that there was nothing in the Polish question to justify a European war with all .its tragic consequences. The Munich settlement was followed five months later by the brutal destruction of Czechoslovakia’s independence by your leaders. If Poland was not to go the way of Czechoslovakia, we had to insist that peaceful methods of negotiation should not be paralysed by threats bf violence and that any settlement should safeguard the vital interests of Poland and should be honourably carried out. The Chancellor of the Reich imagined fear of war would induce the British Government to betray the cause of Poland. He made a fatal mistake. It is not England’s way to break her pledged word and, more than this, the time has come to call a halt to the rule of brute force which the Nazi Government wishes to impose on the world. Britain’s Inexorable Will

“In precipitating this war, he has come up against the inexorable will ol the British Government, backed not 'only by the whole resources of a United Empire, but also by an alliance of Great Powers to maintain unimpaired, human liberty and the rights .of a free people to a free existence. Up to the last moment, the Pope, the President of the United States and the King of the Belgians, speaking for Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland', turned to your Nazi Government and besought Germany to choose the way bf mediation rather than that of war. “You go into this war isolated from the commonwealth of civilised peoples and having the support of nobody but Communist Russia. You cannbt win this war. You are confronted by far greater resources than your own.

“For years iron censorship and a widespread system of espionage has prevented you knowing the truth, of speaking your mind about the cruelties and injustice prepetrated in your name—against you. You have the united strength of free peoples who, with their eyes wide open, will fight to fhc last lor liberty—yours as well as theirs.

“We hate war as much as \ye know you do. But remember Britain never gives way. Our nerves are tougher than yours. We shall never give up. “In a recent German broadcast the Paris correspondent of the Independence Beige is cited as saying that the Ministry of Information had recently announced the British war aims as being—(l) Complete restoration of Poland and the annexation of Danzig by Poland; (2) complete restoration of Czechoslovakia and the rectification of frontiers; (31 the restoration of Austria under the rule of Emperor Otto of Hapsburg, to include the Catholic province of Germany, Bavaria and the Rhine provinces. An examination of Independence Beige shows that the German allegation is like much German news of this kind— completely devoid of all foundation.”