In Full Force

Huge crowds stood in Berlin streets, in Hamburg beer gardens, in Magdeburg restaurants listening to a speech over the radio. It was artful--alternating historical review with hysterical threat. The speaker's voice was deep, gruff, staccato as that of a Prussian drillmaster.

Suddenly above the voice rose a banshee screech--air-raid alarm. The crowds shuddered, broke, ran for air-raid cellars. In Hamburg the radio loudspeakers faltered and fell silent. But in Berlin and elsewhere, the harsh Prussian voice spoke on like a trump of doom, echoing through deserted streets and beer halls.

The alarm which sent the gathered people scurrying to shelter was because of a Royal Air Force reconnaissance flight--no bombs dropped. The speech which had gathered the crowds was the first important official statement since Adolf Hitler's "final peace offer" on Oct. 6. It was made before the Nazi Party Veterans' League in Danzig by Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. After recapitulating the diplomatic bickerings over Poland, Herr Ribbentrop boarded a verbal airplane and made a grand tour:

Friends. "True and sincere friendship arose between Germany on the one hand and the Italian Empire in the Mediterranean and Japan in the Far East on the other hand. Soviet Russia has recently also joined the ranks of the States that are friendly toward Germany . . . and there is every reason to hope that this friendship will grow still closer."

U. S. "Germany is precisely the country among all others that has faithfully observed and respected the Monroe Doctrine. Germany has no interests to stand up for on the entire American continent unless it be to develop as extensive trade as possible with all the States on that continent. It requires an almost morbid imagination to conceive of any difference or dispute between America and Germany that might ever lead to conflict between these two peoples. . . .

"Although British propaganda continually tries to throw the seeds of discord between America and Germany, we in Germany are firmly convinced that the common sense of the American gradually sees through this game."

France. "I believe that throughout the entire world there is today not the slightest doubt that the French people did not want war and that the French people would sooner have peace today than tomorrow, and that this war was forced upon them with unparalleled cunning, cynicism, and brutality on the part of Britain."

Great Britain. "The British Prime Minister had proclaimed removal of the German Government. I will refrain from proclaiming removal of the British Government, for I am absolutely convinced that in the course of events the British people, who were goaded into this war by British warmongers, contrary to their own will, will see to that of their own accord."

To the British people these fulminations seemed surprisingly unsubtle. In the House of Commons Sir Neville Chamberlain said he did not "propose to waste time by commenting at length." That the speech was unsubtle at least in its efforts to pry France from England was proved by the Paris reaction--gay ridicule. Italians were a bit hurt by the fact that over the radio they heard no sound when Ribbentrop praised Italy but a huge cheer when Russia was mentioned.

The German press considered the speech a masterpiece. Deeds, no longer words, would be the order. The Essen National Zeitung gloated: "The moment has come in which the war desired by England must rain down in full force upon the British Isles themselves." But early this week precipitation had not set in.

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