“PEACE OFFENSIVE”

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20058, 3 October 1939, Page 5

“PEACE OFFENSIVE”

INSOLENT NAZI-SOVIET MOVE

REJECTION OUT OF HAND

ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE DIFFICULTIES

STIFFENING OF ALLIED RESOLUTION

(Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 11.20 a.in. RUGBY, October 2. Allied opinion has been completely unmoved by the Moscow declaration of Friday and the rejection out ot hand of the German so-called “peace offensive” is taken for granted. A week-end study in London and Paris of the Moscow development has not in any way modified the attitude towards what is regarded an ill-considered attempt of the Reich to escape from its difficulties. Newspaper comment on the subject is unanimous. The Times says: “Unless the specific terms for peace which the Nazi and Soviet Governments announced depart very widely from the lines laid down in the- statement issued from Moscow on Friday, the reply has already been determined in advance by universal public revulsion against that insolent manifesto. The line of argument by which the confederates profess to acquiesce in their division of the spoils o. aggression is that by which t!h.e political assassin has often claimed to evade the fate of the common murderer. _ Poland, they say, has been destroyed cannot come to. life again. In Britain and France any signs of enemy misgiving. will, ot course, be taken to indicate that this is the moment not to relent, but to stiffen the resolution to the utmost.” “No Dishonourable Bargain. ’ ’ The Daily Herald says: “When the Nazis believe themselves to be' stronger than their enemies they do not ask for peace; they attack. So now) we have it on their own authority that Britain and France are in a superior position. Herr Hitler wants time to repair the German aircraft losses, to stamp out all Polish resistance, to build more submarines and to restock his arsenals with war materials. ‘Then he would turn on Britain and France and seek to destroy them, if possible, in isolation.' Those have always been the Nazi tactics —to soothe and segregate an intended victim until he is too weak, too unprepared and too isolated to resist. We shall not be taken in that way. There will be no dishonourable bargain which leaves the plunderer in possession of his prey and no peace while, the; Poles and Czechs remain under Nazi tyranny.” - -*

The'Daily Telegraph says: “Nazidom will shrink from no resort to avert defeat and its adversaries must steel themselves to faee its utmost vindictiveness. They have to set themhave already accepted all the risks and sacrifices necessary to that supreme end and they would stultify their own effort and as well betray their cause if they acquiesced in the successes which aggression has temporarily won.” Fate Of Others Remembered. The Manchester Guardian says: “People in this country are hardly likely to be impressed by this latest example of Herr Hitler’s peace-making technique. They will remember the fate of other countries whose safety Herr Hitler lias in the past guaranteed. The democracies know there eon only be one end'to the war on which they have embarked and they arc determined to carry on relentlessly until victory is achieved. Herr Hitler’s eagerness for peace betrays indeed his own anxiety'. If he were confident in the success of the lightning war against Britain and France, he would not be inviting Signor Mussolini’s mediation. It is because he knows that a continuance of the present war must ultimately involve his own ruin and the downfall of the Nazi regime that he now is trying to frighten the democracies into accepting a dishonourable peace. The British people firmly believe in the justice, of their cause. Meanwhile the war,must be prosecuted with 'unremitting energy.”

The Manchester Guardian, after quoting the statement by the First. Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. Winston Churchill, that the war began when Herr Hitler wanted it, adding: “We owe it as a duty to ourselves and to all mankind to fight on until Hitlerism is wiped from .the faee of tlm_earth. Only then will it be possible for men to live at peace, and work together to build up a civilisation of which the human race may be proud.”

In reply to a question in the House of Commons to-day, the Prime Minister, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, said that he would make a statement on the German-Russian agreement to-mor:ow.