HITLER’S BAD FAITH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 October 1939, Page 5

HITLER’S BAD FAITH

In an earlier review of the circumstances preceding the war, Mr Chamberlain said it was now evident that Herr Hitler had determined to make war on Poland and that whatever sincerity there may have been in his wish to come to an understanding with Britain, it was not strong enough to induce him to postpone his attack upon his neighbour. On September 1 Herr Hitler invaded Poland, beating down by force of arms and machinery the resistance of the Polish nation and Army. As attested by neutral observers, Polish towns and villages were bombed and shelled into ruins and —at any rate in the later stages —civilians were slaughtered wholesale in contravention of all the undertakings of which Herr Hitler now speaks with pride, as though he had fulfilled them. It is after this wanton act of aggression, which has cost so many Polish and German lives, sacrificed to satisfy his own insistence on the fact of force, said Mr Chamberlain, “that he has now put forward his proposals.” If there had existed any expectation that in these proposals would be included some attempt to make amends for this grievous crime against humanity, following so soon upon'the violation of the rights of the Czechoslovak nation, it had been doomed to disappointment. The Polish States and its leaders were covered with abuse. What was to be the fate of the part of Poland Herr Hitler described as the Ger-.' man sphere of interest did not clearly emerge, but it was evident that he regarded it as a matter for the consideration of Germany alone, to be settled solely in accordance with German interests. “Having pointed out the final shape of this territory and the question of the restoration of a Polish Slate were.

in Hitler's view, problems to be settled exclusively -by Russia and Germany, the Premier declared that it was impossible for Britain to accept proposals based on the recognition of Hitler's conquests without forfeiting honour and abandoning the claim that internation disputes should bo settled by discussion and not by force.