German Declarations
The various speeches delivered by German politicians' in the course of the past week provide ample food for reflection. First comes Herr Hitler at Munich, with the declaration that the map of Germany must be altered till the unification of the German people is complete. In view of the total renunciation of Alsace-Lorraine, and tne ten-years' pact with Poland, this formidable pronounce- ment must be assumed to apply only to the Saar and Austria. The Chancellor's second speech, on Wednesday, regarding unemployment, suggests that he means to end the evil first and pay for the process afterwards—which is not necessarily folly. Next is General Goering, talking to a French journalist in a tone the precise opposite of his " spirit of Potsdam " speech of a week earlier, calling for a frank understanding with France, and declaring that Germany wants no bombing- machines but only scouts and chasers. Finally, Dr. Goebbels, concerned only with internal affairs, and declaring in one passage that since the Nazis were convinced that they were right they could not toler- ate anyone else who claimed to be right, and in another that the New Germany had achieved the finest form of democracy, in that it gave a few men the power of com- mand but reserved the right to criticize their general policy: An alternative reading is that a few men have assumed' command and that anyone who criticizes them does it at his peril. On balance—thanks, singularly enough, to General Goering—there is more good than bad in the various utterances taken as a whole.
