A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
IHOPE some thought is being given by the Prime Minister 1 and Mr. Eden to the handling of the German peace-offer, whose imminence is so persistently rumoured. When Hitler has conquered enough of Russia, so the report has it, he will declare that he has now achieved his object, the protection of his eastern frontier, and while a prolonged, even an indefinite, occupation of Russia's western territories is decided on im- mutably, there can be a generous peace in western and central Europe. France, Belgium, Holland, Norway, Poland, Czechoslovakia will be evacuated by German troops, and left to work out their own destiny within approximately their pre- war frontiers. The calculation, of course, is that a war-weary, oppressed and in large measure terrorised Europe, would jump at such terms, and that America would be left to decide whether to go on with her quasi-war (it may be more than quasi-war by then) for the sake of the Bolshevism which most of her people detest. Of course, the sham will, in fact, deceive no one. If Hitler marched his armies out of the conquered countries this year, he could march them back next year or sooner, for the German Press has made it abundantly clear that Germany would maintain her armed strength after victory. In any case, there is not the remotest prospect that either Britain or America would throw over Russia so long as Russians themselves continue to resist the invader. But the choice will have to be taken between a flat and emphatic rejection of any peace-offer from the present rulers of Germany we are already committed irrevocably to that—and a reasoned manifesto outlining the real peace we are fighting for. There might be a good case for the latter. * *
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