Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1939. PEACE OFFERS WHICH MAY BE MADE.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 September 1939, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1939. PEACE OFFERS WHICH MAY BE MADE.

‘‘WETjTj-TNFORMED circles in London are considerably VV ’interested,” according to a British Ministry of .Intorination bulletin cabled yesterday, “in stories which are caching them from various quarters concerning peace otters which mai be made.” It need not. be doubted that otters 01. peace are likely to be made, by Germany, but it should be plain to all beholders that any offer of the kind coming from the Nazi Government will be as spurious and worthless as the implied overture made the other day by Marshal Goering when he said- “We want peace ... if you want.peace, Mr Ghambeilain, yon can have it.” The Nazi conception of peacc-a conception defined quite frankly by Marshal Goering—is that of a period of untroubled ease in which to batten on the latest kill.

The Allies are pledged to make unrelenting war on Nazism even though Poland should 'be eliminated for the time being as a military factor. This was made clear by Mr Chamberlain when he intimated to Herr Hitler, some days before the Germans embarked on their invasion of Poland, that “it would be a dangerous illusion.to think that, if war is once started, it w.ll come to an early end, even if a success on any one of the seveia, fronts on whjch it will be waged should have been secured. The Allies can make no peace with a Nazi dictatorship committed to aggression and it may be hoped that they will refuse to consider any peace offer until Germany has undertaken to right, as far as that may be done, the abominable wrong done to Poland. Touching on this question, the Ministry of Information communique already quoted observed that: — Once a trustworthy government is established in Germany and the wrong done is righted, Britain doubtless would be ready to consider, in consultation with her Allies and other friendly Powers, how a just and fair peace can be established in Europe. In such circumstances it would be possible to examine how economic conditions could be readjusted so as to allow all countries to derive mutual benefits from the world’s resources. With the conditions here stipulated really established, it may be taken for granted that Britain and the other countries concerned would be not only willing, but eager to consider peace proposals. As yet, however, there is no evidence of any effective move in Germany towards establishing the only conditions in which it will be possible to restore and consolidate peace. Minority elements in the Reich have made themselves heard to some extent in denunciation of Nazism, but the Hitlerian dictatorship is still supreme and is pursuing its policy of aggression with increasing ferocity. It is true that there, is a glaring confession of ultimate weakness in the great pains the dictatorship is /taking to conceal from the German people the truth of the situation, and particularly the British and French determination to- refuse all compromise with the Nazi regime. The essential fact to be faced, however, is. that a. revolution in Germany, opening the way to vital and lasting changes in policy, is needed to make peace possible. Any peace oiler coming from Germany will be -worthless, and will be only part of the Nazi tactics of murderous brigandage, until the German armies have been withdrawn from Poland, and until Germany, through the agency of a government that can be relied upon to carry out its obligations, has undertaken to do everything that is practicable to repair the dreadful havoc that has been and is being wrought in Poland.

An honest abandonment and renunciation of the policy of aggression is the touchstone by which peace overtures’ coming from Germany must be tested if there is to be any hope of re-establishing peace on firm foundations. Adopting any other standard, the Allies would play into the hands of the Nazi dictatorship and present it with the opportunity of continuing its policy of aggression at the time and in the place it might select for its next move.

it is unfortunately clear that the people of Germany are far as yet from having been awakened fully to the facts of the situation. This does not of necessity imply, however, that the war must continue until Germany has once again been reduced to helplessness, as she was in 19.1.8. The condition of peace is simply that the German people should rid themselves of a frightful incubus—should realise and take hold of the truth, now so completely demonstrated, that the shoddy Napoleon in whom they have been told and fiaught to put their trust is a creature of disordered mind, capable only of bringing disaster on the nation that has accepted his leadership and on others.