Herr Hitler's Speech In his Reichstag speech on Sunday, relegated
to a second place in this and some other countries by the political crisis in London, Herr Hitler showed himself unusually self- confident, aggressive and minatory, qualities which do not necessarily denote a consciousness of real strength. For foreign listeners it was unilluminating ; the impression created was that, naturally enough, the speech was meant primarily for his German audience. Herr Hitler can hardly believe that his announcement that the attacks on Germar y by " ng international journalists " required an increase in the German army " in the interests of peace " could carry much conviction in foreign countries. And the vague threat of force to be used against them gives little encouragement to serious jour- nalists, whose chief complaint is the difficulty of obtaining reliable information about Germany from German sources. Herr Hider recurred several times to the use of force as a solution for his problems. Thus, while assuring France that Germany now had no differences with her, he also assured her that any attempt to interfere with his efforts to protect the Sudeten-Deutsch minority would be met with force—an alarming assertion for those who realise how many opportuni- ties the present situation in Czechoslovakia offers for the use of methods already applied in Spain and barely avoided in Austria. References to the latter country were meagre and vague, and the expected affirmation of Austrian independence was conspicuously absent.
