18 DECEMBER 1936, Page 19

IS GERMANY PREPARING WAR?

- [To the Editor of Tim SPECTATOR.] Snt,—Herr R. Kircher has published an answer to my letter in your issue of NoveMber 20th. I do not think that in The view of any English reader of both these letters a reply is required to this answer. But worth to be noted it is indeed that the Editor of the Frankfurter Zeilung in the light of stubborn facts to the contrary, once again repeats Hitler's fabrication about the time and circumstances of his writing Mein Kampf. Herr Kircher once again asserts that- the two volumes have been written, in all essential parts, in the prison of Landsberg. Herr Kircher Must know that Hitler has not been in prison, but in honourable confinement in a fortress. Herr Kircher does not deny my statements that Hitler has been released after a few months, i.e., exactly in December, 1924, and that the second volume of his work, in the original edition, contains among its tracts on foreign policy a judgement on the Locarno Treaty. Not even Hitler nor Herr Kircher deny that the Locarno Treaty has been concluded at the 16th of October, 1925, thus more than ten months after Hitler's release and after the evacuation of the Ruhr.

Herr Kircher calls it not generous to suggest that Hitler is making a good job out of political power, but he does not deny my statement that Hitler's book has been and is being forced on the German people in more than 2,300,000 copies to date, at a price of 12s. apiece, which amounts to

more than £1,500,000 only up to now, and this business is going on on the same scale. After this proof of businesslike efficiency, which Herr Kircher does not deny, I think I may dispense for today with further details of Hitler's salesmanship.