OCR Text |
Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS BY HENRY W. PORTER Germany Opens War on Poland; Acts as Warsaw Spurns Terms; Britain Mobilizes Its Forces (EDITOR'S NOTE When opinions are expressed in these columns, they are those of the news analyst and not necessarily of this newspaper.) Released by Western Newspaper Union L) -I .. . , (i. V : ff) U Estonia , A 1 " tT ' "A" RUMANIA A self-explanatory map of the European continent, describing the strength of the Berlin-Rome axis with that of Great Britain, France and Toland. The strength in man power, planes and ships is shown by the inserted figures on the map. WAR! Hitler Strikes Adolf Hitler issued a proclamation to the German people that war with Poland had started. He ordered the German army to meet force with force. His order to the army read: "The Polish state has rejected my efforts to establish neighborly relations, rela-tions, and instead has appealed to weapons. Germans in Poland are victims of a bloody terror, driven from house and home. A series of border violations unbearable for a great power show that the Poles no longer are willing to respect the German border. "To put an end to these insane incitations, nothing remains but for me to meet force with force from now on. The German army will conduct a fight for honor and the right to the life of the resurrected German people with firm determination. determi-nation. I expect that every soldier, mindful of the great traditions of the eternal German military, will do his duty to the last. "Remember always that yon are representatives of the National Socialist So-cialist great Germany. Long live our people and our reich!" Just before he issued his order to the German army, directing it to meet "force with force," Fuehrer Hitler issued a 16-point "peace program" pro-gram" announcing that he had planned to submit it to Polish negotiators ne-gotiators if Poland had sent emissaries emis-saries to Berlin as Hitler had requested. re-quested. All air traffic above Germany was forbidden except for government military planes. Berlin heard the noise of Nazi war planes droning above. All German ships were warned not to enter the port of Danzig. All ships, German and foreign, in the Baltic were warned to keep out of the Polish port of Gdynia, which was blockaded by the German navy. All schools in Germany were ordered or-dered closed until further notice because be-cause youths were needed for duties in civilian anti-air raid organizations. organiza-tions. The German army was massed on Polish frontiers from the Baltic sea to the High Tatra mountains (in Slovakia) and in East Prussia. Germany announced that all neutral neu-tral planes flying over the Polish corridor were "in a dangerous zone. In this zone neutral airplanes expose ex-pose themselves to the danger of being shot down." In announcing the union of Danzig with the reich, Forster's decree suspended sus-pended the constitution of the free city immediately. The German government announced an-nounced that the German-Russian nonaggression pact had been ratified rati-fied simultaneously in Berlin and Moscow. It was understood that a Russian military delegation, including includ-ing members of the general staff, will arrive in Berlin to conclude a military alliance with the reich. GREAT BRITAIN Great Britain, standing pat on her pledge to fight for Poland's independence, inde-pendence, received the news of Germany's Ger-many's latest moves in the European Euro-pean crisis with the deepest gravity. Attention was attracted by the speed with which Hitler's army order or-der and the harbor blockade followed fol-lowed a German broadcast which said Hitler had proposed to Poland that Danzig be returned to the reich and that a plebiscite be held to decide de-cide whether Pomorze (the Polish corridor) should be Polish or German Ger-man territory. The British government took drastic dras-tic steps to put the country's fighting fight-ing forces completely on a mobilized footing after the already desperate international situation had taken an uglier turn. One of the greatest mass movements move-ments of population in history is under un-der way in Great Britain. It is the evacuation under government order of little children, invalids, women, and old men from congested areas. From London, Birmingham, Manchester, Man-chester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Glas-gow, and 23 other cities the great exodus is going on. Three million persons are being taken out of the danger of enemy bombs. Nothing like it has ever been attempted anywhere, yet it is going on without mishap so far; indeed, without serious se-rious confusion. This sudden burst of preparations for war came after hopes of peace had been revived when it became known that an appeasement move was under way. The peace hopes were based on the belief that the Poles would send a negotiator to Berlin. The hopes for a peaceful solution, however, were shattered when Warsaw announced emphatically emphati-cally that no concessions would be made, thus setting in motion the new British war measures. High British officials did not view Fuehrer Hitler's 16-point proposal for negotiations with Poland as an answer to Britain's latest note in the exchange which has been going on between Berlin and London. Until Un-til their announcement on the German Ger-man radio the 16 points had not been communicated officially to the British Brit-ish government. POLAND The conditions of Fuehrer Hitler's proposals for settlement of the Polish-German dispute, such as immediate imme-diate return of Danzig to Germany, are unacceptable to Poland, a government gov-ernment spokesman said. The spokesman emphasized that Poland was determined to keep Pomorze (the Polish corridor) and her rights in the Free City of Danzig. Of Hitler's proposal for a plebiscite plebi-scite in Pomorze, one reaction here was "Germany can begin with Czecho-SIovakia if she is interested in a plebiscite." (Germany last March established a protectorate over the Czech inhabited in-habited lands of Bohemia and Moravia.) Mo-ravia.) 1 In reply to Hitler's terms as announced an-nounced by the German radio, it was stated Poland will insist upon full restitution of her rights in Danzig. "Hitler insists on Poland yielding Danzig and Pomorze as a preliminary prelimi-nary to negotiations," the spokesman spokes-man said. "Poland has not given up Danzig and Pomorze, and will not. "Britain, in a second reply to Hitler, Hit-ler, has maintained her unyielding position without change." (Britain is bound to assist Poland in war under the terms of a recently concluded mutual assistance pact.) The spokesman emphasized that Poland always has been interested in a peaceful settlement, but that the conditions of the proposals, could not be accepted. FRANCE An unexpected meeting of the cabinet cab-inet suddenly was called, but out of this meeting there appeared only an announcement that France would abide by her pledge to assist Poland Po-land in the war. After the cabinet meeting, Premier Pre-mier Edouard Daladier conferred with Finance Minister Paul Rey-naud Rey-naud and with the minister of marine, ma-rine, Cesar Campinchi. Then Daladier Da-ladier had a long talk with Georges Bonnet, foreign minister. Following these conferences, the rumor spread in diplomatic circles that France and England were standing firm on their positions and refusing tq nibble at the so-called totalitarian peace bait, part of which came in the form of Hitler's 16-point proposal to Poland. ITALY Italy speeded its preparations to put the nation on a war footing as Pope Pius XII issued an eleventh-hour eleventh-hour appeal to save peace. Meanwhile reliable diplomatic sources asserted that Britain, France and Poland had turned down last-minute offers made by Fuehrer Hitler through Italy. Return Re-turn of Danzig to Germany and negotiations ne-gotiations on all other issues were the terms of Hitler's suggestions, it was said. UNITED STATES President Roosevelt directed that all naval ships and army commands be notified at once by tadio of German-Polish hostilities. BUSINESS: Outlook Good War conditions art accepted today as a nominal business factor rather than a series of temporary economic shocks as has been the case in the past, according to the magazine Banking. The magazine reported a general hopeful outlook for business in spite of the war conditions. "Business is beginning to see daylight day-light and solid ground, although still wary," it stated. "Improvement has been fairly general, but statistically, trade still falls short of levels reached two years ago." The magazine cited four factors which, it said, are responsible "for quite a noticeable spirit of hopefulness hopeful-ness on all sides." "Of these," it stated, "one is the perfectly obvious change for the better bet-ter that has come over public opinion opin-ion regarding business. A second factor is the unexpected nature of j the improvement and consistent ac- tivity of the summer months. Third on the list of encouraging items is the low point of most inventories," it said, adding that the present business busi-ness reaction to war conditions as a normal business factor constituted the fourth. U.S. ARMY: Weakness Recent army maneuvers at Platts-burg, Platts-burg, N. Y., revealed such serious deficiencies in training, equipment, leadership and administration of the nation's armed forces that Lieutenant Lieu-tenant General Drum declared conditions con-ditions were inexcusable and deplorable. deplor-able. General Drum's citation of errors er-rors and mistakes made in the field included the following: 1 Extensive additional training is needed by the National Guard, the f : ' I LIEUT. GEN. DRUM Criticizes army, organized reserves, and the regular army units in large-scale actions where they function together. 2 The army is dangerously under manned and the shortage of modern arms is critical. 3 There is a serious breakdown of supply services essential to the maintenance of an army in the field. 4 Staff work has not been speeded speed-ed up to cope with the speed and great territorial range of mechanized mecha-nized forces. General Drum found that neither officers nor men receive enough experience ex-perience in operating as parts of a large unit. The staff work was particularly poor as a result PANAMA CANAL: Safeguarded Extraordinary steps have been taken to guard against espionage, and possible sabotage at the Panama Pana-ma canal, the nation's lifeline of defense. de-fense. Washington officials stressed that the assignment of additional guards at strategic locks and control con-trol houses is purely precautionary and that there has been no indications indica-tions of foreign plots against the canal. The safeguards coincide with start of a huge defense program, including construction of another air base, extra anti-aircraft and coast batteries, enlarged garrisons and supplementary locks. The posting of extra guards at vital spots along the canal is part of the general preparedness pre-paredness developed by the army and navy to meet an emergency. Details of the new vigilance measures meas-ures are being treated as military secrets. Similar steps to guard against foreign spies and sabotage have been taken during recent months in aircraft factories, arsenals and other oth-er government or private plants engaged en-gaged in manufacture of war materials. mate-rials. INDUSTRIES: War Program The war resources board is making mak-ing an intensive study of America's plan for industrial mobilization in case of war. Edward R. inettinus, chairman of the board and top man of the United States Steel corporation, corpora-tion, is charged with the responsibility responsi-bility of seeing that the nation's industrial in-dustrial machine can be swiftly changed over from meeting the needs of peace to meeting the needs of war. Helping Stettinus are several sev-eral prominent industrialists. |