Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1939-09-11
Three Years or More

around Warsaw during the week
end, momentous utterances were
forthcoming from the highest quar-
tiers in both Great Britain and Ger
many. They were not unrelated. On
Saturday Marshal Goering, address,
ing munition workers, tainted Brit
ain with her alleged inability to de-
feat Germany, economically or
militarily.
Hitler'S anointed successor spoke
in accents of calculated turbulence,
seasoned with transparent but
bungling attempt to separate France
from the democratic alliance 1--WE
want nothing from the French"
Goering said. only America re-
mains for Britain, but we can get on
without the United States as source
of raw supplies A blockade will
be Ineffective because Russia has
plenty of raw materials and will
supply them. Rumania, Yugoslavia
and Hungary are neutral, hence they,
too, will also furnish Germany with
necessities"
Great Britain wasted no time in
responding to this challenge of her
capacity in the long run to thwart
Hitler's campaign of conquest. Only
a few hours elapsed after Goering's
pep talk to the munition conscripts
before the Chamberlain government
replied in the most striking state
ment issued since the Prime Minis
ter's announcement on September 3
that the country was at war. The
statement disclosed that the War
Cabinet at its meeting earlier in the
day decided to base its policy on the
assumption that the war will last
three years or more" All branches Of
the government are making their
plans accordingly.
This manifesto that "Mr. Britling'
intends to "see it through" is not
only Britain's answer to the Goering
taunt. 1t also reflects the nations
reaction to the now widespread be-
lief that, having conquered and &C.
cupied third of Poland and re-
stored pre-1914 German Polish from
tiers, Hitler is preparing to offer
Britain and France so-called "fait
accompli" peace. He will propose, it
is foreshadowed, that there is now
nothing left to fight over"
John Bulls now proclaimed readi-
ness to make war, if necessary, for
three years or more" knocks into a
cooked hat any hope Hitler may
have cherished that the western
powers are willing to quit and
leave Poland ravaged and helpless
in his hands. Even Won Ribben-
trop, who did not think the British
would fight, can hardly be trying to
make his Nazi master believe that the
sons of Nelson and Wellington, of
Lafayette and Rochambeau, and of
Kosciuszko and Pulaski, for that
matter, dream of throwing up the
sponge just because Poland has gone
the way of Belgium after initial as
sault in overwhelming force.
Apart from Mr.. Chamberlain's
earlier pledge that Britain has gone
in to finish" Hitlerism, the Berlin
suggestion that Germany has al
ready reached its detectives in Po-
land, i.e., re-establishment of her
eastern frontiers as they stood in
1914" deserves immediate notice. If
that is promise, it is about as trust
worthy as the average Hitler prom
Use. Once again Der Fuehrer gives
himself the lie. In the chapter on
Eastern Policy" in "Mein Kampf,"
he wrote:
The frontiers of 1914 mean
nothing in respect to Germany's
future. They were no protection
in the past, nor would they mean
strength in the future. They
would not give the German people
internal solidarity, nor would
they provide it with nourishment.
From military standpoint they
would not be suitable or even sat
isfactory, nor would they improve
our present situation with regard
to other world powers, or rather
the powers that are the real world
powers. The distance from Eng
land would not be shortened, nor
would those frontiers make us as
big as America. France, moreover,
would not suffer any essential
diminution of her Importance in
world politics.
In this revelation from the Nazl
Koran there is food for thought In
neutral capitals like Berne, Copen-
hagen, The Hague, Brussels, Buda-
pest, Sofia, Ankara, Bucharest-but
most of all, as the German war ma
chine plunges east and northeast
across Poland, is there food for fast
and serious thinking at Moscow
The Ukraine is today only a march
| Of day or two from the German