Evening star., 1940-03-02
Mr.. We|Ies Meets the Nozis

Mr.. We|Ies Meets the Nuzis
Germany's price for peace is "Gott
strafe England" Undersecretary of
State Welles. whose visit with Chan
cellor Hitler in Berlin was scheduled
for this forenoon. learned yesterday
from Foreign Minister Won Ribben-
trop what he probably will hear in
more explosive detail from Der
Fuehrer today.
Mr.. Welles, according to sources In
Herr Won Ribbentrop's confidence,
was told in effect that Germany is
not prepared even to talk about
peace until and unless the British
"stranglehold on the economic life
of the world" is broken. In other
words, If this is a reliable reflection
OF present-hour Hitlerian mental
processes, the Nazis will not stack
arms until the British Empire lies
sundered and PROSTATE at Germany's
feet.
If this is the Reich's irreducible
minimum, the wars end is long
way off. Such peace terms" could
only intensity Britons' resolution to
60 on fighting, for they would
thenceforth be on formal notice that
the enemy seeks nothing less than
the humiliation of the British COM
monwealth of nations. It is virtually
unconditional surrender which Hitler
seems to seek-a German victory
which would substitute Nazi stran-
glehold" for the one broken"
The German claim that Britain
seeks suffocating economic pre-
dominance in the world is a sheer
myth, the absurdity of which no
nation has greater reason to recog-
nize than Germany. For years be-
fore and since the first World War
the markets and economic possibil-
tiles and resources of the British
Empire have been as freely open and
on equal terms to Germans as to
Britons themselves, and Hitler's peo-
pie availed themselves eagerly and
profltably of those opportunities.
For years each nation was the others
best customer.
AS recently as last Saturday Prime
Minister Chamberlain assured the
Germans, not for the first time, that
once they establish a non-Nazi gov
ernment which can be trusted to
keep faith, Britain and France stand
ready to pledge the Reich economic
justice" and substantial aid in "the
difficulties bound to accompany the
transition from war to peace" But
before there can be such co-opera-
ton in a new order," which must
include gradual disarmament, Ger
many must by works, and not mere
words prove to the world that she
has scrapped once for all the regime
of intimidation and brute force
which has held Europe in a grip of
terror for the past seven years. o..
Nor have the western powers even
branded as unbeatable the demand
for restoration of Germany's war
lost colonies. More than once Hitler
has been told in the most categorical
fashion that return of the Reich's
former overseas territories is a sub
ject that will be ripe for considera-
ton the instant 1t becomes the cor
nice, not the cornerstone of a post
Versailles readjustment. Other things
must come first. Foremost among
them, besides the re-establishment
of Czecho-S -Slovakia and Poland,
would be solemn covenants by a
bookkeeping Berlin government Cd
to renounce aggression and CD to
join in a program of gradual dis
armament by all the powers. Once
these major fundamentals are set
tled-settled on the understanding
that pledges are made to be kept
and not to be broken-Hitler has
long been aware that Germany has
no reasonable living space" or raw
materials claims which the "have"
powers are unwilling to discuss.
There is another vital condition.
Before entering the conference
chamber, the Germans would have
to park their weapons outside, and
not expect to turn the meeting into
a table-pounding or saber-rattling
session.
Nothing Mr.. Welles has apparently
heard in Berlin so far can be classed
as new. The changes are only rung
on what the Nazis have preached for
years, though with more vehemence
since last fall as their helplessness
to break the war "stranglehold" Of
Britain is realized by a blockaded
nation and its baffled government.