The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1941-02-25

comply. opponents OF the plan ar
que. their propositions would prove
to be so far apart that It simply
would have been waste Of time to
get EN- on record.
II President Roosevelt or State
Secretary Hull drafted q plan.
though. and broadcast It to all and
sundry. the opposing scrappers
couldn't very well avoid noticing II.
Quite likely 1t wouldn't be alto
gether acceptable to either side,
but they'd have TO tell how much
Of It they were prepared to swal-
low. and what changes would have
TO be made, to make it go down. 1t
would get EN- talking, anyway, and
perhaps that would lead to a pacific
conclusion. That's the would-be
peacemakers' reasoning.
There's one flaw in it
That Signature
Suppose Uncle Sam should evolve
a peace program. And suppose
Britain and Herr Hitler (Signor
Mussollni wouldn't count), after
making a lot OF alterations in il,
did arrive at a mutually acceptable
compromise. And suppose Adolf
subscribed to It, Why. nobody'd
consider his signature worth the
paper II was written on! So what
would be the use?
My own surmise is that the
Fuehrer would acquiesce in not i'm
possible terms-if he could be
trusted, under oath, TO stick to EN-
any time at all.
Remember the comparatively
early days Of the last war?
Well, shortly after January 1,
1915, I crossed Germany on my
way from Denmark to Holland,
making several short stopovers In
transit
I talked with quite a.. 80
ton Of English-speaking Teutons
during these stops. They weren't as
important as the kaiser. but sew.
eral of EN- were Of a good bit OF
consequence. including the mayor
Of Hamburg, an army marshal
p briefly on leave from the front, and
various others in the same class
One and all, these birds were for
a peace dicker with the Allies. If
only the Allies would accept the
status quo.
And, from their standpoint,
they'd have been cuckoo II they
hadn't been. II the rumpus had
stopped at that stage of the game.
Germany'd have won it. Naturally
these Fatherlanders didn't want it
to go on, with coolies more Of sacri-
fees for EN- to make and at the
risk of a bad reversal and defeat
in the long run--just as actually
happened.
The Allies, however. unaccommo-
datingly wouldn't recognize that
they were licked and quit.
Ditto 1916 today If Herr Hitler
isn't willing to call the fight off
temporarily on the present face
of the returns, he isn't as bright as
most folk give him credit for being
Nice for Hitler
For him to do so would be dis
agreeable for signor Mussolini,
skinned out Of Italy's African en-
pire, thumped by Greece. loser Of
at least the southern end of Al
bahia and due to be deposed at
home. But 1t would be alright for
Adolf He'd have Scandinavia tha
bulk Of the Balkans, the Low Coun.
tries and about half Of France.
And, after resting a while. presum-
ably he'd repudiate his peace bar
gain and clean UP the loose ends
like Italy, the rest Of France. the
rest Of the Balkans, French and
Italian Africa, maybe he'd begin to
chew on Russia and heaven knows
what else.
Wouldn't he be a sucker not to
make peace right now. with such
ends in view!-if the non-Nazi
world will fall for it?
I'm quoting the and-negotiated
peacemakers.
The net result Of the discussion
between the negotiators and the
anti-negotiators is this:
Adolf very likely would make
promises that would sound fair.to-
middling, but Britain rates his
promises value at a mile less than
zero. And John Bulls essential
peace condition is that Adolf is to