The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

velt and King Leopold; every move that Germany made toward war pre- parations was countered in Britain, all of which made a fastâ€"moving political chequer-board. The game was finally called off on Sunday. September 3rd. The sentiments of a nation were expressed in Chamber- lain’s declaration of a state of war with Germanyâ€"“We have done all that any country could do to estabâ€" lish peace. But a situation in which no word given by Germany’s ruler could be trusted, and no people or country could feel itself safe, has be come intolerable. And now we have resolved to finish it.” Within ten days of Britain’s declaration of war, all the Dominions had officially announced their support. During the same time, a more stringent issue of food ration cards in Germany was paralleled in Britain by a tightenâ€" ing of regulations governing the sterling exchange. Blocked sterling now came into existence. Import and export licenses, exchange per- mits, control over shipping space, etc., all entered into Britain’s im- mediate war economy. Less than five hours after the declaration of war, Chamberlain had formed his new War Cabinet of nine members. That dynamic statesman of the last war, Winston Churchill, was recall- ed to his old post of First Lord of the Admiralty and Lord Hankey, once rightâ€"hand man to Lloyd George, as Minister without Port- a British bill for emergency war powers by orders-inâ€"council was passed‘ and‘ the hitherto agreed upon five-year Anglo-Polish military pact was signed. For weeks, the alliance had been only an informal pledge without benefit of signature. Ger- man newsapa‘pers rancovrously com- plained of border violations and mis- treatment of Germans in Poland: Polish President Moscicki answered peace appeals from President Roose- velt and King Leopold; every move that Germany made toward war pre- parations was countered in Britain. Last August 24th came the bomb- shell of the German-SOViet agree- ment (only three days after the sur- prise announcement that Moscow and Berlin had- called off their long- time em’bittered feud) and the result- ing disappointment on the part of the Germans to find that Chamber- lain andv Daladier had not “cracked,” as had been hoped, under the shoek of the new entente. Instead, the two democratic leaders showed cOmplete. lack of animus except to recall, from Moscow, their military missions who had been there in \anticipation of an alliance between their own countries and the U.S.S.R. Chamberlain did confess, however, that the pact came to him as a “surprise of very un- pleasant character.” Immediately. Since March last, there has been a more or less forcible attempt to stem the Nazi tide. The British. despite the Munich “peace”, took the lead in a “stop Hitler” movement, with an arms program so large that it startled even themselves. Peace- time conscription. was introduced for the first time in the British de- mocracy. France consolidated her political and military fronts. Then came Munich and the Sudet- enland which, though it gave Germâ€" any a territory as large as Belgiumv was no prize at all compared- with the alleged political humbling of Britain and France. For the six months from Munich to the capitulan tion by the Czechs last March. it looked as if Hitler was riding to a fast victory in his drive for 9. “Con- tinental Empire.” Memel, whose re- turn to (the Reich would have been a major development as recently as three years ago, was swallowed like a crumb by the Nazi leader. The World War of 1939 began at 5.20 a.m. (Polish Time) on Friday. September lst, with the German bombing of the Polish fishing vill- age, Puck, on the Bay of Danzig. Great Britain declared war two days later when called upon by her guar- anteed allyâ€"â€"at 11 a.m., the same hour at which the Armistice of Noâ€" vember, 1918, was signed at the end of the “war to end all war." France came in six hours later. The last minute negotiations for a peaceful solution of European dif- ficulties, tuning up since Munich, reached a high pitch with Hitler's strident letter of warning to Cham- berlain on August 23rd last in which he vehemently averted that his “def- inite interests were impOssiEle to renounce.” The beginning of the drive for Nazi power, however, had taken its root with the German march into the Rhineland in 1935, followed by the annexation of Ausâ€" tria in the spring of 1938. The lat- ter was the first foreign undertaking of the Nazis. Besides welcome supâ€" plies of foreign exchange and highâ€" grade iron ore, the Austrian coup brought Germany to the Brenner Pass and put Nazi authority astride the trade routes to the east. THURSDAY, OCTOBER WAR’S BACKGROUND 26th, Authenticated records show that Germany approached her Polish con- quest in an unmistakably boastful and paradoxical manner. As far back as June, the Nazi boast of the obliteration of Poland was heralded abroad. In the words of General Franz Holder, German Chief of ;Staff: “We are now in a position to l‘turn against our principal enemy, ‘Poland. It is not necessary to talk about the period of ‘friendship pacts’ with Poland which were never taken seriously by our people or the Poles...We must keep in mind that our ultimate objective is the total annihilation of Poland. There will be no battles in the conventional sense, but a single shock which de’-. stroys the resistance of the enemy. ‘and induces him to surrender . . .. ‘the army will be defeated, the peo- ‘ple demoralized.” iwritten with his own pen as his {language was completely amateur- 1ish and highly personalized compar- ‘led with the really momentous docuâ€" !ments of history. The final insincere manoeuvre of the German government came on August 3151;. Poland, through Brit- ain, made public that day at 6.30 pm. her willingness to enter into negotiationns with Germany. At 9.15 p.m., a copy of a 16 point ultimat- um, prepared by the German gov- ernment, was presented to Sir Nev- ille Henderson. Two hours later, the German government stated that. as no plenipotentiary had come from Poland to discuss the 16 points, they regarded their proposals as rejected. Obviously there was no opportunity to communicate the proposals to the Polish government for all means of communication between Berlin and Hitler’s letter of September 3rd to the British Government revealed iastounding statements which were in direct contradiction to those of Gen- eral Holder made several months previous!y-â€"~“...Germany did not have the intention and never has de- manded that Poland be destroyed.” In no uncertain terms he laid the blame at the British doorstep. The Polish “terrOrism” inflicted on Ger- mans residing within Polish bound- aries, he said, was becOming all the more unendurable because of the British assurance of support “in any case.” His preposterous statement continued that he “was moved by the suffering of the German people who were being tortured and inhu- manly treated by the Polish authori- ties;” that the British Government had destroyed the peace of Europe through its continued refusals of Mussolini’s “peace” proposals: that it was responsible for “all the suff- ering and unhappiness which would come over so many nations.” Tn later communications between Hitler and the British Government, the German chancellor continued to accuse Britain for any forthcoming destruction of the world. In blazing words that will be remembered for many years to come, he flayed the democratic nations for their stub- bornness in refusing to accept the “preferred” German friendship, re- fused to listen to the reasoning tones of Chamberlain and Daladier and. through his own stupidity and col- ossal prejudice. plunged the world into a war that may be destined to ruin myriads of lives of still another generation. Diplomacy in 1939 The prelude to the War of 1939 saw something new in the line of international consultation for, since the beginning of the crisis, unpubâ€" licized personal messages had taken the place of diplomatic transmis- sions. Hitler’s telephone talks with Mussolini and his exchange of state and personal letters with Chamber- lain and Daladier were frequent. In a message to Daladier, for instance, Hitler’s words did not shroud their meaningâ€"“I have set up a clear de- mand on Poland.” It was obviously 939 in the trade with the democratic countries during the present con- flict. Meanwhile, the United States can sell oil, wheat and scores of other essentials that are not arms. It should be realized, too, that if the neutrality act is not repealed, it is likely that American industry will be tempted to rapidly establish shadow industries in Canada for the manufacture of mar equipment which, in turn, Will mean a great in~ dustrial development for this D0min~ War at Sea On Sunday, September 3, approxi- mately eight hours after Britain‘s declaration of war, came the first signal that the ensuing conflict as to engender submarine battle on a large scale. For with the torpedoe~ ing and sinking of the Cunard liner, Athenia, and the estimated 10ss of well over 100 lives, the fuse was ‘set off, signalizing the beginning of ya war of terrorism and a slaughter 'of the innocent. More reason could lhave been attached to the act had ithe boat been rushing to England with munitions or supplies. ,The British Ministry of Information im~ mediately announced that the Reich ‘was duplicating the same unrestrict- ed submarine .warfare that brought the United States into the war in 1917. This news nonplussed the fReich propagandists who set about finding a plausible alibi. An “ex~ 'planation” was offeredâ€"that Winâ€" ston Churchill had engineered the whole thing to arouse American ffeeling against Germany. The Ger~ mans then turned loose a series of “full-blown atrocity stories” about the Poles, even alleging their foes to have nailed German children to a table and to have crucified a German forester. Goebbels’ opening barrage of propaganda, although not always authentic. was effective. Newspap~ ers throughout the world carried, in the first three weeks of the war, many photographs but most of them were of German origin â€"- the only ones available. They showed Ger~ man victories in Poland â€" and al- ways with great care to show the Germans in the best light. ion. On the other hand, there is no doubt but that the repeal of the United States arms embargo would provide encouragement to the allied cause. U. S. Neutrality On September 5th, amid an his» toric stream of proclamations, Presi~ dent Roosevelt told the world of the' United States neutrality in the Euro- pean war and clamped down the U.S. neutrality act’s embargo on arms shipments to nations at war. Exâ€" empting Canada from the embargo until she formally declared war on September 10th, a considerable sup- ply of aircraft and' war equipment was shipped across the border durâ€" ing the intervening week. But, as yet, the U.S. ban has. not seriously hampered trade. In many respects, the act had been exaggerated as a handicap to allied assistance. In fact, an estimate of American trade in the third year of World War I shows that only 25% concerned commodi- ties such as rifles, carbines, aircraft and actual arms now embargoed by the U.S. neutrality act. However, it must not be forgotten that air~ craft will play a much bigger part Since the sinking of the Athenia, all types of sea-going craft, British, French and neutral, have been sunk by Nazi war machines. Passengers ships, carrying Canadians anxious to return home, were forced to make “zig-zag" trips across the ocean) convoyed part way by British cruis- ers to be met by Canadian warships for the remainder of the journey. Britain made the plea that warfare 'be restricted to the military objec~ tives of belligerants but Germany had seen fit to disregard such pleas. The Nazi U-boat menace is, how- ever, being surely overcome. Winâ€" ston Churchill has stated that poss- ibly one-third of German submarines at sea had been destroyed. Moreover, German merchandise seized and used by September’s end totalled sOme 186,000 tons, more than has been 10st by Britain in submarine attacks. Churchill gave his assurance that, before the end of October, the Allied forces hunting down enemy U-boats will be three times as great as at the beginning of the war. Britain has replied to the Uâ€"boat menace with a naval convoy system, armed merchant vessels and direct naval attacks. Warsaw had, at that time, bee off. Germany began her war Poland the next morning. Ev the terms of thhe ultimatum have been accepted, this last-n action on the part of the Ge government could hardly be te sincere. The export supplies, moreover TILE LIBERAL. RICHMONU HILL. ONTARIO war with Sven ii nute i Russia and Italy ‘ As Germany was about to finalize a blitzkrieg (lightning war) in Pol- and, her new “ally”, Russia, march- ed on September 17th to grab her own fat share, establish a buffer state on her western border and re- gain control over White Russia and the Ukraine, given to Poland by the !Treaty of Versailles; the Nazi and Communistic armies ultimately met and divided the conquered nation beâ€" ltween them. Russia could not help [being suspicious of her former bitter enemy and Hitler’s oftâ€"broken word. But the surprise Russian invasion did not shake Britain from her aim. Western Front Meanwhile, on the western front, the battle, to all intents and pur- poses, had only been simmering. As a result, many have become impa- tient of the inactivity of the British and French forces. The lack of pub- lic release of war news from this front has caused the Ministry of In; formation to be dubbed, in some quarters, the “Ministry of Irrita- tion.” No doubt, Generals Gort and Gamelin have their own military tactics which have not yet been made public but which, ultimately, will carry the allied cause to vic- tory. Chamberlain stated that Ger- many’s successful invasion of Poland does not alter the British and French determination, that war would end only when there was “an end once and for all to the intol- erable strain of living under the When war broke out, the stand that Italy would take was of con- cern in allied quarters. But Hitler gave Mussolini the official “out” when he stated he did not need Italy’s military assistance. With a coastline and transportation system at the mercy of the British and French navies and an inherent an- tagonism for Germany’s new god- less ally, there is reason to believe that Italy, if permitted by the belligâ€" erents, will continue to maintain her policy of neutratity in her own right â€"Hitler"s word must seem no more trustworthy to Italy than to those countries who tried trusting him be- fore. sugar, wool and wheat, have been bought up by the British Govern- ment and Great Britain is now grad- ually releasing a part of these sup- "plies to meet the needs in the variâ€" ous parts of her Empire. many other war essentials, such as sugar, wool and wheat, have been Winter golf is the sport that attracts Widest notice to Vic- toria’s wonderful year-round cli- mate, but the West Coast has its pilgrims who are drawn there each winter by the splendid weaâ€" ther and the series of unusual sports and social attractions made possible by the fine weather. Winter fishing is a major sport in Brantwood Bay Where sizeable Golf, tennis, lawn bowling, riding, hunting and fishing may be unusual Winter sports for most of Canada but not for Vic- toria, beautiful Island capital of British Columbia, Where snow is a novelty, flowers bloom throughout the year,and overcoats are excess baggage. Golf, Tennis, Fishing, Riding, Yachting, Victoria Sports During ‘Winter Monms CAR, Model T Ford, Tudor, in good condition. Reasonable. Apply R. J. Srigley, Rumlble Avenue, Richmond So runs the prelude of a war that may be destined to rack the founda- tions of civilization as we know itâ€" a conflict brought on by the per- sonal ambitions of a man who rose from the humblest depths to become the leader of a nation which, for the second time in twenty-five years, is straining toward its ultimate objec- tive of world empire. Hill threat of Nazi aggression .. for there can be no peace until the men- ace of Hitlerism has been finally removed. ' With more readers than ever before, now at your service, THE LIBERAL Classified Adver- tising section. THE LIBERAL Have You Something To Sell ? Best known of the Winter at- tractions is the Midâ€"Winter Golf Tournament which will be held this year on the Royal Colwood course, March 3-9. Keen com- resque celebration is the Christâ€" mas festival in Old English style, complete with boar’s head, yule logs, Wassail bowl and carols. Victoria and the Empress Hotel petition, a sporty course and good have enjoyed a growing popularity golfing weather, added to the many prizes of which the most important is the trophy presented by Sir Edward Beatty, make the tourney one of the most popular in Canada. in recent years. A real impetus has been given this season by the fact that foreign exchange under war pressure makes a Canadian dollar worth considerably more in Canada than in the United States. grilse and spring salmon are caught by trolling. Fly fishing for steelhead salmon up to 20 pounds is found in east-slope rivers such as the Oyster, Cow- ichan, Englishman’s. Nanaimo, and Big and Little Qualicum. Established 1878 Now With The Largest Circulation In Its History TELEPHONE 9 RICHMOND HILL It may be livestock, a piece of unused furniture, some article for which you have no further use -â€"turn it into cash by offering it for sale in the classified advertising section of The Liberal. You have no further use for itâ€"there is some- one who is willing to pay cash for it. Find that person through advertising. The cost is smallâ€"twenty-five cents for twen- ty-five words and a cent a word over that amount. Send them by mail and enclose amount or tele- phone to our office, Richmond Hill 9. W'ood'bridge’s $5.00 poll tax, which was instituted last year with result- ant court summonses, is again de- manded in first notices issued Sat- urday by Constable C. F. Lewis. The demand gives seven days to pay, summary proceedings rbeing‘ threat- ened at the expiration of that time. Last year only two days grace was given. Another change this year is delivery of notices lbv registered mail instead of personally by the collect- or. 42 are in the mail, according to Pastmaster Alf. Thompson. Riuing, thlug, lawn bowling. boating are but a few more sports that are as popular in Victoria in winter as in summer. Fiestas are arranged from time to time, named after flowers then in bloom. Probably the most pictu- resque celebration is the Christâ€" mas festival in Old English style, complete with boar’s head, yule logs, Wassail bowl and carols. PAGE SEVEN