Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY. NOVEMBER 12, 1940. THIS PICTURE AND THAT.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 November 1940, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY. NOVEMBER 12, 1940. THIS PICTURE AND THAT.

JN the extent to which it purported to be historical. Hitler’s speech at Munich on Friday night consisted almost, entirely of a string of lies. It was at the same time a tirade of hale poured out by a murderous pervert. In these passages and aspects the speech neither deserves nor needs attention. A certain a£'--'.nt of practical interest may reasonably be taken, the claims that Hitler made and it is decidedly A/U, to set these claims in contrast to leading details of resolute and dispassionate survey of the war outloo&WffTlde by the British Prime Minister in London on Saturday. Hitler told his hearers that:— When the time for the big attack comes, I hope to obtain the same results as before. Then we shall see who has made the best use of these months —we or they. Germany is able to face any combination in the world. Mr Churchill made more modest but better-supported claims. Answering the criticism of those who sometimes wondered why we were not able to take the offensive against the enemy, “and have always to wait jor some new blow to be struck against, us,” he said the reason was that enormous British war factories laid down shortly before the war were only now beginning to come into production, whereas the Germans had long passed the culminating point in munitions production. We have therefore (said the British Prime Minister) a long and arduous path to travel, in which our war industries must grow up to full stature; in which our Navy must receive reinforcements of the hundreds of vessels begun before the outbreak of war and now coming continually into service; in which our Army must be equipped, trained and perfected into a strong offensive weapon; and in which, above all, our Air Force must add superiority of numbers to that superiority of quality which, in machines and still more in manhood, it has so signally displayed. Tu this an&i/ what he had to say further about the loyally resolute eiU-lT of British labour and of the value of the help the United States and the overseas Empire were able to give, Mr Churchill obviously rested his case upon a cautiously conservative assessment of material realities. Hitler as obviously was putting an extreme strain upon an already overtaxed imagination in his blustering assertions of what Germany yet will do. It is, of course, not doubted for a moment, that so long as it remains dominant, the Nazi dictatorship will continue to assail Britain and those who stand with her with all the power and vieionsness at its command. It has to be admitted also, that the Axis Powers derive for the moment a certain advantage in their complete disregard of every principle and consideration of morality. It is much easier wantonly to wreck and destroy than to defend and to build up. Yet even in Hitler’s speech in which he strove so desperately to show that all is well with the wreckers and despoilers, there are many signs of weakness. The truth plainly is that the Fuehrer is lying as industriously and as unscrupulously as ever, but much less convincingly. He said, for example:— I can assure you that German production today is the highest in the world. We are today in a position to mobilise the power and energy of more than the whole of Europe. Any reasonably informed human being knows how false these claims are. German and Italian production has been and is being smitten in deadly fashion by British bombing squadrons and under the pressure of the British' blockade much of the industrial production of enemy countries and of the occupied territories they control is tremendously weakened and disorganised. Moreover the Nazis are not organising the production of the countries on which they have laid violent hands, but are despoiling them in a fashion worthy of ape men. The profits of this process are limited and fleeting. Hitler perhaps was at his weakest in claiming that “the tight so far had not brought any sacrifices worth mentioning to the German people.” This is so far from being true that Io the last moment possible the Nazi propaganda machine had Io be directed to nurturing in the minds of the German masses llie delusion that they would not have to endure again the severe hardships and deprivations they endured in the last, northern winter. The German people are now bitterly disillusioned, though that does not mean that they can be expected to rise speedily in revolt against their tyrants. As an overseas commentator observed recently:— For the time being, at any rate, the outward solidarity of the German home front is guaranteed by the Gestapo and its auxiliaries. But it may bo questioned whether by this means alone the moral of the multitude can bo for an indefinite period kept up to the standard required by total warfare. In declaring fairly and frankly that we have a long and arduous path Io travel Io victory, Air Churchill is able to count, in Britain, in the overseas Empire ami in Allied ".otinlries or groups still 11 e<‘, upon the resolute and spontaneous response of people determined not only to defend their own liberties, but to lift th(‘ world to <i higher tiiornl mid spirit plnnu tlril Udler and his gang are able Io set only an ability still Io coerce and drive, lor a time, the servile and miserable masses Io whom their foul tyranny extends. Millions of oppressed souls, in the occupied countries and in Germany itself, arc sustained bv (he hope ol being able one day Io play their part in helping to make an end of Hitler and all that he'stands for.