Evening star., 1939-11-09
At HitIer's Behest?


Wilhelmina and King Leopold bears
on its face such evidence of genuine
ness and spontaneity that it is some
what invidious to suggest 1t may
after all be only another phase of
the peace offensive launched by Hit
Ter in his truculent Reichstag speech
of October 6. But the Fuehrer him.
self, with that genius for tactlessness
which characterizes Berlin diplo-
macy, almost substantiates the the
ory that the Dutch-Belgian proffer
was made in Germany" when he an
nounces that a Nazi reply to the
royal olive branch has been rem
dered practically unnecessary by
British Foreign Secretary Halifax's
accursedly prompt comment on the
subject"
What Berlin Is fitting at is the
foreign secretary's broadcast, OBJ
viously prepared many hours, if not
days, before the peace proposal of the
Dutch and Belgian rulers was made
known. In his speech Lord Halifax
repeated a broad outline of allied
war aims, which have hitherto
evoked no welcome in Germany.
Britain and France, he said, are
fighting for "a new world in which
the nations will not permit insane
armed rivalry to deny their hopes of
fuller life" The western powers
"are determined to see to it" he
added, that Europe shall not be
subjected to a repetition of this
tragedy" Indicative of how such
sentiments reflect British public
opinion is comment in the London
Daily Telegraph that If the foreign
secretary had had the message of
the Dutch Queen and the Belgian
King in mind, "he could not have
made a more appropriate and con-
vincing reply"
AS France is no less lukewarm to
their majesties tender of good offices,
the latest peace move has clearly
missed fire. Certainly nothing in
Hitler's Beer Hall harangue against
Britain at Munich last night en-
hances the outlook for wars end.
Well-informed Frenchmen like
Pertinax attribute the move of the
rulers of the Low Countries to Ger
man pressure on Belgium and the
Netherlands. This, Pertinax alleges.
has been applied in increasing degree
since the end of October. Some sup
port of the Pertinax thesis is lent
by the fact that both the Dutch and
the Belgians have been strengthen
ing their defenses against the posi-
bility of an armed attack on their
neutrality by Germany. The famous
French commentator on foreign af-
fairs now suggests that The Hague
and Brussels may have been sub
jected to strong arm influence from
Berlin to resume the peace offensive
on Germany's behalf.
While the air is once again thick
with peace talk, it is not inappro-
pirate to raise a point that is arous-
ing attention throughout the western
world, including the United States.
It concerns the desirability of formu-
lating the earliest feasible outline of
the kind of peace which the allies are
ready to offer to Germany. Nowhere
has the situation been put more
tersely or clearly than in a recent
editorial column in the Birmingham
Age Herald by a distinguished COM
mentator, John Temple Graves, I'd.
"When this war is ended" he says,
"if the end is not to be only another
armistice between wars there is 60
ing to have to come peace so scien-
tif1c, generous and world minded
that no people will again give place
to an Adolf Hitler 1t is going to
have to be a peace that will save for
the western world the great gifts of
the German people. With such a
peace in mind, it is we'll in these days
of passion and propaganda to keep
the fine qualities Of the German peo-
pie in sight, even as the proper busi-
ness Of hating Hitlerism goes on"
Is it possible to doubt that, if allied
craftsmanship can get such a mes
sage, perhaps couched in even more
concrete terms, to the German ma
ton, there would be hastened that
reformation of German thought
which must ensue before a great but
deluded people will be brought to CO.
operate in overthrowing a system
which enslaves them and which ha.
undeservedly brought the German
name into worldwide disrepute?
Arlington Election