ALLIES WELL PLACED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 November 1939, Page 5

ALLIES WELL PLACED

NO NEED TO REPLY IN KIND TO NAZI THREATS COMMENT ON CONDITIONS IN GERMANY. EVIDENCE OF RESTRAINING INFLUENCE. By Te'egraph—-Press Association—Copyright (Received This Day, 9.40 a.m.) LONDON, November 17. Foreign Office officials explain that it is not Britain’s practice to reply in kind to German threats, for example Herr von Ribbentrop’s threat of “indy horrible war.” Germans habitually talk this way, likewise it is contrary to the British national character to reveal beforehand countermeasures which would operate in the event of Germany fulfilling her blood-curdling threats. If the Germans break the rules of war, by, say, bombing an open town, international law provides that the victim may retaliate. Similarly it is recalled that Germany in the Great War used gas first and regretted it later. She would likewise regret such action in this war, remembering that the prevailing south-westerly winds would favour the Allies. There is convincing evidence of unrest in Germany and dissension between the generals and Herr Hitler. Even without evidence, common sense tells that this dissension exists, because it is the German habit to strike hard and quickly, so that only dissension can explain the delay to the

German attack—delay which has placed the Allies at an enormous advantage. Facts available to everybody show positively the existence of a restraining influence operating in Germany, due to difference of opinion between the military view and the gangster view.