Decisive Year in German History

Manawatu Times, Volume 65, Issue 1, 2 January 1940, Page 7

Decisive Year in German History

HITLER’S CONFIDENCE IN VICTORY Received Monday, 6.30 p.m. LONDON, Dec. 30. "We enter the most decisive year in German history," said Herr Hitler in a message to the Nazi Party reported from Berlin. The Fuhrer said eighty millions could not be kept from participation in the world’s wealth. "All the measures we have taken hitherto have neither robbed nor harmed the rest of the world. They merely gave the German people the things other nations have." He repeated the charge that Britain and France do not want peace while Germany did. He affirmed that Central Europe was pacified in 1939 by a succession of epoch-making events, including the "destruction of the Poland of Versailles." To the Nazi Party may 1940 bring a decision. * ‘ That decision will be our victory come what may." Admonishing the nation to bear its war burdens, Hitler said: "We have a precise war aim. Germany and Europe must be liberated from oppression and constant threats which to-day as in the past originate in England. This time their arms must be definitely wrenched from the hands of the war inciters and the war declarers. We fight not only against the injustice or Versailles but i for the prevention of the greater injustice with which it would be replaced. "We fight for the construction of a new Europe because unlike Mr. Chamberlain wc are convinced that it cannot be shaped by outmoded forces of a decaying world and by so-called statesmen who are unable to solve the most primitive problems of their own countries." Air Marshal Goering, General von Brauchitsch and Admiral Raeder sent New Year messages 10 the fighting forces affirming confidence of victory. In a New Year message to the troops Hitler said: "For the ensuing year we want to ask the Almighty who in the 2>ast year so clearly took us under His protection to vouchsafe again His blessings and strengthen us in the fulfilment of our duty. For ahead of us lies a most serious struggle for the existence or nonexistence of the German people." Britain’s war guilt is given prominence in long reviews of the year in ail the morning papers. More Gory Goering Threats. Air Marshal Goering, in an article in the Voelkischer Beobachtcr, admitted for the first time the use of minelaying planes. He declared that German battle planes are only awaiting the Fuhrer’s command. "No land is more vulnerable from the air than the British island and when the German Air Force counterattacked the assault would be such as world history had never experienced. "This war is a struggle for national existence," declared Dr. Goebbels, in a New Year broadcast. "The coming year will be hard. Victory will not be given to Germany as a present. Everyone must earn it. On the front lines and at home Germany is ready for any attack on political, economic, military or moral grounds." Dr. Goebbels added: "Last year was the greatest and proudest in our history. Germany has thrown off the shackles and reappeared for the first time after her collapse as a great Power." He repeated the charge that Britain was responsible for the war. Empire Responsible for Damage to German Colonies. It is officially stated that Germany will hold England, France, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa responsible for damage to the former German colonies arising from the war. It is pointed out that the Powers are obliged by the terms of the mandate to maintain neutrality therein. The German wireless admits that the blockade has deprived Germany ot coffee, cocoa, jute and rubber, but adds that sustitutes are available. Germany’s peacetime economy was drilled for war requirements and her people were educated to become true socialists, hence the marvellous start in 1939. Britons, who served the interests of a few individuals, therefore are no match for the Germans.