Speculation has naturally fastened on the passage in Hen Hitler's
speech at Danzig in which he spoke, or is repre- sented as having spoken, of " a weapon which is not yet known and with which we could not ourselves be attacked." I say " or is represented as having spoken," because an ex-German friend of mine who listened to the speech as it was broadcast had the impression that Hider was simply referring to some new use of an existing weapon, probably the submarine, and was surprised to see in the English ver- sion references to a new weapon ; as to that, we must wait till German papers, with the speech in the original, get through. It is possible, of course, that Hitler may have had in mind air-attacks on merchant-shipping, or mass attacks on ports, such as Goering threatened in his speech last week. The remark that the weapon, or method, could not be used against Germany seems to indicate something which affects sea-transport. Obviously, of course, the threat may be mere bluff, but that particular kind of bluff is nor quite in Hitler's manner. The Daily Mail, by the way. accepts the existence of a secret weapon, saying that Herr von Ribbentrop and other Germans have talked freely about it, and that it may be assumed that the British Government knows enough of the potentialities of the weapon to be able to counteract it.
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