Evening star., 1939-04-28
Hitler Replies

bIIAISs NSPISS
Chancellor Hitler's reply to Presi-
dent Roosevelt's plea for assurances
of non-aggression takes primarily
the form of a definite proclamation
of a German demand upon Poland
for Danzig, for a German path
way" through the Polish Corridor
to East Prussia and for final regu-
lation OF Poland's borders.
That is the one positive aspect
of the Fuehrer's two-hour address
before his puppet Reichstag today.
Otherwise, 1t constitutes a sweeping
rejection of the Presidents appeal
for categorical guarantees that the
axis powers harbor no territorial
designs on the thirty-one countries
named in Mr.. Roosevelts communi-
cation of April Is.
The Reich's requirements of Poland,
Hitler announces, were formally
presented at Warsaw and have been
rejected, even though Germany, to
make them palatable, offered the
Poles twenty-tlve-year peace pact
to take the place of the former ten
year non-aggression treaty, which
Berlin now holds to have been
voided. Britain'S action in inviting
Poland to join an "encirclement" of
Germany bloc, the Fuehrer discloses,
has also impelled the Reich to abro-
gate the Anglo German naval limi-
tation agreement. The development
now awaited is the disclosure Of the
means by which the Nazis propose to
enforce their Polish program.
Hitler boasts that he was able to
solve all Of Germany's other terri
torial problems" Czecho-
Slovakia, Memel-without resort to
war. There is, in that statement,
an ominous suggestion that he hopes
the Poles, like the Austrians, the
Czecho-Slovaks and the Lithuanians,
will yield to the intimidation and
threats of superior force by which
the Reich solved" its respective
problems at Vienna, Prague and
Memel.
For the rest, Hitler's answer" to
President Roosevelt is a protracted
alibi for the German aggressions of
the past year-a broad claim that
the Reich in no case has done any,
thing except to reclaim what be-
longed to it. The Fuehrer very def
nitely re-hints that Germany's lost
Colonial Empire comes within this
category and that Nazi intentions
also to recover it have by no means
been abandoned.
The Chancellor's talk, as usual,
was shot through with ironic thrusts
at the democracies and their alleged
ly unfounded claims to purity and
unselishness in their international
relationships and their own "impe-
rialistic" history. For the hundredth
time Hitler laid Germanys woes at
the feet of Woodrow Wilson and he
calls upon Franklin D. Roosevelt
to make good the American war
Presidents "unfulfilled promises" re-
specting colonies and international
disarmament.
Hitler scorns the proposal of the
President to see economic and arma-
ment justice done to the Reich at
another international conference.
He chides the United States with
having itself turned its back on the
decisions Of the Versailles confer
ence and he thrusts vigorously at Mr..
Roosevelt's suggestion that Ger
many appear at the conference table
minus her guns. The Fuehrer de-
clares that a disillusioned Reich will
never parley with other nations ex-
cept in full military panoply.
In the same connection that the
Fuehrer f1ayed Britain for "oppress-
ing" Ireland and committing ag-
gression against the Arabs in Pales-
tine. Hitler said that he would like
to ask the President of the United
STATES 10 proclaim to the world what
this country's intentions are in Gen.
tral and South America. Certainly,
the Fuehrer asserted, Germany has
no designs upon any Western Hem
isphere state.
The German Chancellor, in gilt
tering generalities, denies that Ger
many has ever menaced, or does
now menace, the sovereignty of her
neighbors. He challenges any one to
produce proof to the contrary. But
he distinctly withholds those cate
gorical assurances" for which
President Roosevelt asked. Coupled
with his avowed threat against
Poland, that refusal clothes Hitlers
pronouncement with anything but a
pacific significance.