NEWS OF THE WEEK
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T is extremely significant that the Wilhelmstrasse should have I declared that Germany " had said farewell to. Hitler's plan for a new order in Europe under German hegemony." This is not only a confession of defeat (further statements included the hypothesis "even if the Allies win a total defeat and treat Germany worse than in 1919 ") but an open confession of the defeat of Hitler. It is difficult to believe that such a confession would be possible if Hitler were still alive and of sound mind. More than that, the confession goes beyond what, on a short view, the military situation would seem to call for. It is true that from Basle to north of Aachen Allied armies are on or across or close to the German frontier—but no- where are they as much as twenty miles into German territory. It is true that the Russian force's are continuing their methodical sub- jection of Hungary, but except for a few square miles of East Prussia they nowhere stand on German soil. Germany has lost for ever Festung Europa, but her own leaders might have been expected to think her still capable of defending Festung Deutschland, or at am rate to persuade the German people of that. Too much must not be made of a single declaration, of unknown authority, but it looks as though someone qualified to speak realises what Germany's situation is. Though the enemy is hardly across her frontiers east and west, the enemy is on her frontier both east and west, with massed artillery and armour of unprecedented weight. The double blow, when it is fully developed, must be irresistible, and it would appear that that is realised in Germany at last. What the effect of the realisation will be remains to be discovered.
