Berlin Excitation The artificial and absurd fury of the German
Press at the speech delivered by M. Thorez, the French Communist leader, at Strasbourg on Sunday has no . semblance of justifieation,, and on the diplomatic side a .comparatively mild protest by the German chargé d'affaires at Paris appears to have been thought sufficient. M. Thorez' specch has been very inadequately reported, but it is doubtful whether there was ground for any protest at all. The Special Correspondent of the violently anti- Communist Temps, writing from Strasbourg before the Berlin hubbub broke out, observed derisively : "Who ever heard violent revolutionaries more restrained in their expressions. Thorez himself ended his harangue with an appeal for an understanding with Hitler within the framework of the League of Nations and collective security." M. Thorez certainly referred to Herr Hitler's policies as set out in Mein Kampf, but if it is to be an offence against international amenities to quote incon- venient passages from that work, the remedy is for its author to withdraw it or revise it. Actually the Com- munists intended to hold over a hundred meetings in Alsace-Lorraine last Sunday, but the Government, which shows no sign of trimming its sails to secure Communist favour, cut the number down to ten. There are indications that Germany is busy constructing the bogey of a Communist France. Like most bogeys it has no relation to facts.
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