6 NOVEMBER 1936, Page 2

The Oratory of General Goering It is fortunate in one

respect that exuberant verbosity has come to be accepted as the natural characteristic of Dictatorship orators, for it means that speeches which twenty-five years ago would almost have meant war are hardly accorded the dignity of double headings in the average newspaper today. None the less, some limit needs to be set to accusations of malpractices directed against foreign Powers, and it was well that the British Am- bassador at Berlin should have entered a formal and firm protest against General Goering's charges that colonies and gold had been " stolen " from Germany. The average Englishman may greet such denunciations with a shrug of the shoulders, but it is of some importance all the same to know what Herr Hitler's policy in regard to this country really is. While he sends Herr von Ribbentrop here with an olive branch and permits General Goering to wave a club round his head and Dr. Goebbels to launch flights of barbed arrows in Berlin, we may be forgiven if we find it a little difficult to know where Herr Hitler himself stands. He is credited with a desire to be on cordial terms with this country, and he certainly has the power, if he chooses to use it, to restrain ebullitions which obviously militate against the realisation of that desire.

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