The War Illustrated, Volume 1, No. 3, Page 94, September 30, 1939.

Designated by Hitler as heir-apparent to the Leadership of the Reich, Marshal Goring’s pronouncements may be taken as a true reflection of the official Nazi standpoint. Here is his first war-time speech.

Not long ago Goring told the German people that they could not have both guns and better…

When he addressed the workers in an armament factory in Berlin on September 9th he had to tell them in effect that now the guns were going off there would be still harder times for the German people.

He began his speech with an almost plaintive reference to Britain, which had come to the support of Poland-"a little State that has been inflated in the last few years as one blows up ridiculous little rubber figures." He went on:

"We have never harmed British interests. We have even recognized her dominion over a fifth of the world. But really England is not in the least concerned with Poland. The Poles are to them of as little interest as perhaps the Turks. For Britain there is nothing important in the world but herself.

"What is the situation in Poland, the scene of the war? The Polish army will never emerge again from the German embrace. We can hope that within 14 days of beginning the chief things will be achieved, and in a few weeks more the last work of cleaning up will be finished. We estimate that the whole campaign to the last clearing up will not last more than four weeks.

"If the British aeroplanes fly at tremendous heights at night and drop their ridiculous propaganda on German territory, I have nothing against it. But take care if the leaflets are succeeded by one bomb. Then reprisals will follow and will be carried out as in Poland…

"Germany, they say, is mortally vulnerable in the economic and internal spheres. When I started the Four-Year Plan I did it with the object of forming a protection that cannot be defeated, and today I can say that Germany is the best armed State in the world. We possess all that we need to defeat our enemies. They have more gold, copper, and lead, but we have more workers, more men. That is decisive. And our production of aeroplanes and guns is still far greater than that of our enemies…

Nazi Ideas of Honourable Peace

"You (Mr. Chamberlain) cannot doubt the will for peace of the German people. It is great and deep and the peace-will of the Fuhrer is very deep. We wish for peace and are ready for peace. It rests with toy, Mr. Chamberlain. Will you give the word foe life or death? Then give it and we take the offer. But never again shall there be a Versailles. We are ready for an honourable peace, but we will fight to the utmost if there is no peace.

"I Know Things Will Get Worse"

"I know there are many things that will get worse. There is, for example, the question of substitute materials. I admit that the suit of substitute materials is not so good as a real one, especially since we have made the latest fibre from potato plant. But that is not the point. It is no longer a question of the life of the individual but that of the nation. I now that war soap is not as good as peace soap and often there is no soap at all. But then we must just have dirty hands…

"I can understand how depressed many of you are when you think of the World War. And many say that it will be the same again as it was then. But the situation is not the same…

"I must ask hard and difficult sacrifices of you. You must understand that it cannot be otherwise. You must also understand that at the beginning everything does not go as well as it should. The most important thing is bread, and we have seen to it that there is enough. Of meat, it can be said that we eat far too much of it in any case. With less meat we shall get thinner and so need less material for a suit. That is an advantage.

"You shall always be told the truth in this war. Maybe that at the front there is a serious reverse-that must not be hidden from you. If listening to foreign radio stations is heavily punished, it is not because we fear them but because it is dishonourable to listen to the dirty tirades of foreign countries…

"We are prepared for an acceptable peace and equally determined to fight to the last the Leader, who for many years has raised up the German people. Shall we be parted from such a Leader at the wish of Great Britain? It is too monstrous to speak of it. We want peace, but peace at the price of our Leader is not to be thought of. To destroy our Leader is to destroy the German nation. Germany is Hitler, and Hitler is Germany."

Germany’s Bankrupt Policy

Replying to this tirade, the British Ministry of Information said that in official circles it is regarded that Goring’s speech revealed the bankruptcy of Nazi policy. It read:

"It is considered in official circles that Field Marshall Goring’s speech revealed the bankruptcy of German policy.

"Herr Hitler has made many promises to foreign countries: none of them has been kept.

"It is therefore not surprising that no confidence is placed in any assurance he may give, and Great Britain is therefore justified in requiring that peace should be concluded with a German Government whose word may be trusted.

"But the German Government has also misled the German people who were promised "peace and honour." They have not got "peace and honour." They have not got peace because the German Government has deliberately pursued a policy of violence which has made war inevitable. They have not got honour because the world recognizes the crudity and falseness of the German Government’s charges against Poland.

"The sickening technique," as the Prime Minister called it, has become too familiar.

"Great Britain is fighting for a return to decency in international relations. Until this is achieved no country is safe. Germany may say that she has no aims in the West, but the tale of limited German territorial ambitions has been told too often to inspire the slightest confidence.

"Great Britain does not desire another Versailles, as Field Marshall Goring falsely alleges, nor the collapse of Germany, but a just and enduring peace with any honourable German Government.

"As regards the economic situation, Field Marshall Goring’s remarks can have brought little comfort to his hearers, who already, even before the outbreak of war, have been reduced to meagre rations.

"What is to be said of a Government which frivolously embarks on an unnecessary war in economic conditions that gravity of which even Field Marshall Goring’s optimism does not venture to conceal from an audience which is only too well aware of the facts?"

It Is Said That…

There is growing German anxiety at the apparent early failure of their air force. Rapidly-mounting casualty lists and the few ‘planes which return after raids on France are making a profound impression in Berlin.

It is being realizes that many German pilots are too young and inexperienced. From Washington comes a statement that Germany is killing at least 3 pilots under training each week. (Reuter)

In Western Germany the words "Heil, Hitler!" are rapidly going out as a greeting. People are going back to the pre-Nazi salutation of "Gruss Gott!"

At Aachen, Cologne, and Crefeld, travellers said that the police have had to disperse angry food queues; at Aachen and Dusseldorf they broke up groups of women and children demonstrating against the departure of soldiers for the Front.

In Germany salaries are being reduced and no overtime is paid for night or Sunday work. Residents must make room for refugees, and are advised to feed rabbits and goats on materials left over from the kitchen.

Berlin tailors have issued a manifesto asking the population to hunt up old clothes capable of being refashioned.

According to a report from Panama, the German cargo boat Eisenbach, 4,177 tons, sailed from Corinto, the principal seaport of Nicaragua, on the Pacific coast. Gunports-holes for guns-had been cut with oxy-acetylene apparatus. Other German ships, it is stated, are being fitted out as privateers in ports on the west coast of South and Central America.

A feature of the German offensive on the Western Front is the use of machine-guns operated electrically by remote control.

Under a decree published by the Ministerial Council for the Reich Defence, any person committing robbery, larceny or violence under cover of a black-out or an air-raid warning will be liable to sentences ranging from long terms of imprisonment to death.

Americans arriving in Copenhagen from Berlin were partially stripped at the frontier. The women were made to remove stockings, shoes, dresses and other garments. All luggage was inspected, minutely, even sticks of shaving soap being taken from their cases.

A crowded theatre repeatedly hissed the scenes of German troops marching victoriously through Belgium in the Great War when the film "Nurse Edith Cavell" was given its first presentation in Washington.