Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1939. HITLER’S DANZIG SPEECH.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 September 1939, Page 6

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1939. HITLER’S DANZIG SPEECH.

WHATEVER mav be thought, of him in other respects, one distinction must be accorded unreservedly to the German Fuehrer. There is no man taking a prominent, part in national and world affairs today whose spoken word, measured by standards of truth and honesty, counts for less than that ot Herr Hitler. His speech at Danzig, reported yesterday, ipamtained the reputation he has earned. In his denunciation 0.. Poland as a British Official Wireless message published today points out in some detail, he has eaten his own words of recent date, a feat, it has to be admitted, he has never at any time found difficult. Only a year ago, he was praising and declaring Jiis friendship for Poland, the nation he now declares to have been guiltv of an intolerable maltreatment of the German minority within its borders and of various other alleged crimes. In this respect and in others, Herr Hitler’s speech followed a pattern he has made familiar—a pattern compounded of falsehood and deceit. It was entirely typical and in accordance with precedent that he should hint that his latest aggression wits to be the last. He is reported as stating that the restoration of Greater Germany was now completed and that: All parts of the Reich are now united.” Lt .will be remembered that he said very much the same thing when the Sudetenland was occupied' by German troops, but six months later he annexed Bohemia and Moravia, and more recently has dealt in a similar fashion with Slovakia. If there was any point of practical interest in the Fuehrer’s speech it was in his statement, that: We will reach an understanding with Russia, as she is our nearest neighbour. Such an agreement should set at rest England’s fears of unlimited German expansion. Germany and Russia have guaranteed that Poland will never again rise in the form that the Versailles Treaty laid down. The democracies would find out for themselves the ultimate aim of the German-Russian understanding. Russia remained Bolshevik and Germany Nazi. Let no one think they would quarrel. Germany did not intend to annex the Ukraine. The principal reason for believing that Germany will attempt to annex the Ukraine is that Herr Hitler has proclaimed in “Mein Kampf” that she will do so. Ju a thoroughly characteristic fashion, the Fuehrer is now on record as stating that Germany will, and that she will not, aim at annexing the Ukraine. On this ground and others, the development of the GermanRussian understanding will be followed with considerable interest. Since Herr Hitler can hardly expect the Soviet to hand him the Ukraine on a platter, he may in this particular be compelled against his will to honour one of his promises. In doing so, however, he will break another and to that extent his record of consistent bad faith will stand. Dike innumerable others he has made, Herr Hitler’s speech at Danzig, in itself: means and establishes nothing, but in his contact and understanding with Soviet Russia and in the war in which he has involved his country with the Allies, he is in the grip of forces he cannot hope to control. Some indication of an appreciation of that fact, so far. at least, as Russia is concerned, is the solitary element of interest to be discerned in his latest oratorical effort.