31 MARCH 1939, Page 17

By such incantations do they seek to assuage their anxieties.

Each fresh Hitlerian annexation is (after the first shock of numbed amazement) explained away as " not nearly so serious as it seemed at first." When the hurricane cloud of doom gathers above this island, then we shall find these sound business men searching with hope, and not without dexterity, for its silver lining. And when, to their pain and surprise, no such lining can be discovered, they will comfort each other with the assertion " You can count on this : it will take the Fiihrer a very long time to digest the British Empire."