THE CHINA MAIL, APRIL 5, 1940
PREMIER CONFIDENT Says Hitler Missed The Bus Last September
Ready To Meet Blitzkrieg
Or Protraction
London, To-day.
AFTER SEVEN MONTHS of war, Mr. Chamberlain is ten times more confident of victory than he was at the beginning, he told the annual meet- ing of the Central Council of the National Union of Conservative Associations yesterday." This, he said, was not based on wishful thinking, but
SOCIALIST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
Brussels, To-day.
The executive of the Labour.. and Socialist International, meet- Ing here, has “appointed a small committes to prepare the ground- work for a programme for the re- construction of post-war Europe.
ers together as to make full use of our existing manpower.
GUNS FOR BUTTER
Then there is another thing. Ger- man propaganda, perhaps in order to sweeten their own choice of guns instead of butter, has been.spread- ing it about that we are all short of food in this country and they have been so persistent in it that many people, kind friends of ours in other countries, are sending parcels of eatables of food here. If, some time later, we want to save shipping space for war materials or if we want to
·restrict demands upon our foreign exchange, we may have to do with- out some of the things that we had been used to. But we can stand a lot of curtailment yet without feel- ing any worse for it."
NEVER AGAIN Mr. Chamberlain concluded: many is; so short that they have had terms of the Anglo-French . Declara- assurance that
The committee includes Phillp Noel-Baker (Britain), Leon Blum (France), and M. Huysman (Bol- glum)-Reuter,
"The
on the fact that we had successfully beaten off to add to their other crimes by en-tion were the best
slaving the Poles and Czechs, drag-you could have that we shall not again all attempts to starve us out by attacks on ship-ging them from their homes, to work be cheated of our fruits of victory ping "from raiders or aircraft or from secret wea-for them like
Here our trouble is exactly the op European security will be available pons or any other old thing the Nazis can think posite. I admit we have not yet suc- to us when the war is over.-British of "
He referred to the close collabora- Germany had been preparing for the war for years, and one would tion between Britain and the Domin- have thought she would have used ions and the complete accord "with her initial superiority to try and our great and gallant Ally, France." overwhelm the Allies. Was it not Recent declarations had given proof very extraordinary that no such at- of the determination of Britain and France not only to win the war and tempt had been made?
make peace together, but, after peace has been made, still to act for the reconstruction of Europe.
Whatever may have been the rea- son-Hitler may have thought he had could get away with what he got without fighting for it, or pos- sibly it was that his preparations were not sufficiently complete-one thing was certain: Hitler missed the
bus.
TUNED UP
The seven months have enabled us to get ready, to consolidate and tune up every arm, offensive and defen- sive, and so enormously add to our fighting strength that we can face the future with a calm and steady mind, whatever it brings.
WHICHEVER ALTERNATIVE The will to conquer. must enable us either to withstand the intensified warfare with whatever checks and disappointments may come to offset our triumphs, or equally stand up against a protracted wearisome war in which for many months together it might seem impossible for either side to win a decisive advantage.
seven
Whichever alternative may come, I put my faith in the traditional cour- age and tenacity of our race.-Reuter. The seven months had been of little
RELATIVE POSITIONS found use to Hitler because it had
"I feel that during the last him with no larger margin of strength
Nazis months our relative position towards to carry on. Even now the
Czecho- the enemy has become a great deal are enslaving Poland and
Just consider slovakia, dragging people from their stronger than it was. homes to work like slaves in many.
Our trouble is the opposite: we are not yet making full use of our man-power. This is being dealt with .rapidly..
own,
was
Ger- the difference between the ways of a country like Germany and our Long before the war Germany making preparations for it. She was on land increasing her armed forces
resources to and devoting all her turning out arms and equipment and to building up huge reserves of stocks; in fact, she was turning herself into a fully armed camp.
Turning to certain aspects of Ger- man propaganda, he said that there were German reports that we were short of food. As everyone knew, "we have no shortage."
our
On the other hand, we, at peaceful nation, were carrying on with NEUTRAL SENTIMENT
peaceful pursuits. It is true we had There was a growth of sentiment been driven to begin to build up again in neutral countries which compared those defences which we had so long our methods of warfare with those left in abeyance but we postponed as, used by Germans. We may have long as any hope of peace remained, committed technical breaches of their those drastic measures which were neutrality sometimes by accident, necessary to put the country on a war sometimes not.
footing.
But there is all the world of dif- ference between what we have done' and those terrible, callous and wicked proceedings on the part of Germany, who had sunk neutral ships without warning and left their crews exposed to the perils of the sea.
EXTRAORDINARY THING When war broke out German pre- parations were far ahead of our own and it was natural then to expect the enemy would take advantage of his Initial superiority to make an endeav- The fact was that Germany had our to overwhelm us and France be- not got a real trious and World, fore we had time to make good our although there may be many, there deficiencies. Is it not a very extraor- are many, who are still dominated dinary thing that no such attempt was by the fear of her military power. made." It could not be expected, however, that we should allow Germany in definitely to profit by our scrupulous- ness. And whatever the neutrals might say in public, they knew that our victory spells freedom for them, our defeat condemns them to slavery. ONE BY. ONE!
Mr. Chamberlain added that he had not the slightest doubt that the enemy too had been busy and he would be the last to underrate his strength and determination to use that strength without scruple and without mercy if he thought he could without getting his blows returned with interest.
OPPOSITE TROUBLE
the
"You can take it from me," he went "I grant that. But I say this on, "that, one by one, the leaks and very completeness of his preparations loopholes ar: beeing stopped and as has left him very liftlé, margin of the war goes on the strangling effect strength still to call upon. I was will, more and more, draw the lifeblood reading in the paper only a couple of days ago how short of labour Ger- from the enemy.”
slaves in Germany. and that the essential elements
ceeded in so bringing work and work-Wireless.
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