Blood Bath

Early last week Premier Edouard Daladier answered over the radio Adolf Hitler's overtures for peace as delivered before the Reichstag fortnight ago. Accusing the Fuehrer of merely wanting peace now to legalize and consolidate his conquests, the French Premier turned him down.

"We have taken up arms against aggression," said M. Daladier. "We will lay them down only when we have certain guarantees of security which may not be put in doubt every six months. . . . What in fact does the latest speech before the Reichstag amount to? This: I destroyed Poland, I am satisfied; let's stop the combat; let's hold a conference to consecrate my conquests and organize peace."

British Mind. M. Daladier's answer, while direct, was rather pedestrian. The Nazis paid little attention to it and waited two days longer to hear what Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain would say. Mr. Chamberlain was far from pedestrian. Summoning the firmest, most serious tone of voice he could, the Prime Minister, in 17 minutes of blistering oratory, gave Fuehrer Hitler a piece of the British mind such as he had never had before.

"On September 1 Herr Hitler violated the Polish frontier and invaded Poland, beating down by force of arms and machines the resistance of the Polish nation and Army," said Mr. Chamberlain. "As attested by neutral observers, Polish towns and villages were bombed and shelled into ruins and civilians were slaughtered wholesale in contravention, at any rate in the later stages, of all the undertakings of which Herr Hitler now speaks with pride as though he had fulfilled them.

"We must take it, then, that the proposals which the German Chancellor puts forward for the establishment of what he calls 'the certainty of European security' are to be based on recognition of his conquests and his right to do what he pleases with the conquered.

"It would be impossible for Great Britain to accept any such basis without forfeiting her honor and abandoning her claim that international disputes should be settled by discussion and not by force."

Fuehrer's Word. Mr. Chamberlain also took a shot at what he called Herr Hitler's "sudden reversals of policy." And as he dwelt briefly on the fact that the Fuehrer had concluded a pact with Soviet Russia "after his repeated and violent denunciation of Bolshevism," the Prime Minister glanced toward the diplomatic gallery, where Soviet Ambassador Ivan Maisky was straining his ears to catch every word.

"What stands in the way of . . . peace?" asked Mr. Chamberlain. "It is the German Government, and the German Government alone. . . . Past experience has shown that no reliance can be placed upon the promises of the present German Government. Accordingly, acts--not words alone--must be forthcoming before we, the British peoples, and France, our gallant and trusted ally, would be justified in ceasing to wage war to the utmost of our strength."

"Insolent." The House roared with cheers for the Prime Minister. The British press soon burst out with a chorus of approval, pointing out that if the door to negotiations had been left slightly ajar, the opening was much too small for Fuehrer Hitler, with his pride and his conquests, to slip in. The ordinary Briton applauded and at the same time scanned the skies for the German bombers that the Nazis had threatened to send over when the war began in earnest.

That night in Berlin the Fuehrer sat down in his great Chancellery and for three hours studied, word by word, the Prime Minister's speech. After that he called a conference of his most trusted henchmen and his highest ranking Generals. The Berlin blackout was ordered deepened, with arrests threatened for the smallest infraction. Berlin also halfway expected the bombers. But there was still some talking to be done. Emerging from Herr Hitler's study long after midnight was a polished, suave, smooth-faced man who for years has been one of the Fuehrer's confidants. He was Dr. Otto Dietrich, the Nazi Party's Press Chief. For years Dr. Dietrich has delivered annual lectures on Nazi morals and ethics to foreign correspondents. This time he had something more than morals to talk about.

Speaking for the Fuehrer, he said that the Chamberlain reply was "insolent" and "stupid." It was "totally devoid of vision" or "comprehension of the world situation." The Prime Minister's failure to grasp the "outstretched hand" of the Fuehrer meant that the British wanted to annihilate the German nation. "Let's see who will be annihilated," snapped Press Chief Dietrich.

"Only the U. S." Then Herr Hitler (through Dr. Dietrich) tried again one of his offside diplomatic plays. If the U. S. would only tell Britain it would not support her in a war unless she first tried to settle the issues at a conference table, the war would be ended. Dr. Dietrich felt sure that Herr Hitler would delay giving the command to start firing on a big scale until President Roosevelt could indicate his willingness to mediate. Otherwise, said Dr. Dietrich, there would ensue the "most gruesome blood bath in history." In Washington President Roosevelt let it be known that he would not respond to any such roundabout, undiplomatic suggestion.

Saturday, Sunday, Monday passed after Dr. Dietrich's warning and still Herr Hitler did not say the word that would send bombers roaring over London and Paris. There was talk of summoning to Berlin Italian and Russian emissaries for a conference of war. It was doubtful, however, whether the Italians cared to talk things over with the Russians.

Barrel? The firmness of the Allied attitude and the fulminations of the Germans revived reports that all was not well on the home front in Germany. Correspondents hinted that the big land-owning Junkers of East Prussia were uneasy now that Fuehrer Hitler had so glibly made Joseph Stalin a neighbor. Few thinking Germans believed that the Soviet Union could or would supply Nazi Germany with much war materiel, and many a German was disturbed by Russia's seemingly unending diplomatic successes in Eastern Europe, at Germany's expense. The week's sea successes cheered the morale of a people who started the war on short rations, but the blockade did not end with the sinking of the Royal Oak. Did the Allies have Herr Hitler over the barrel?

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