NEWS OF THE WEEK
THE most hopeful passage in Herr Hitler's Reichstag speech, discussed more fully in a leading article on a later page, was the statement that .the Chancellor had no more surprises (such as the occupation of the demilitarised Rhineland) in store. For the rest the speech was negative so far as any indications of progress towards a European settlement are concerned. Herr Hitler said, indeed, that he had assured Belgium and Holland of Germany's readiness to guarantee their integrity and independence, a statement which has mystified the countries in question and appears to refer back to the public offer of last March to include Holland as well as Belgium in a Western European security agreement. But that agreement makes no progress, though both Britain and France are anxious to push forward with it. Herr Hitler embodied in his speech a statement of eight ways to peace, but for the most part they were neither specific nor constructive. He still sees Europe as divided into two halves and shows little inclination to come to terms with a League of Nations which includes Russia, or with a France bound to Russia by the Franco-Soviet Pact. Herr von Ribbentrop has now returned to London after a long absence, and`the best hope is for some increase of understanding through ordinary diplomatic contacts both here and in Berlin.
