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Non-Germans did not think Herr Hitler's speech very funny, however. In it they discovered that Herr Hitler was not just repeating the by now tiresome tirade against the Treaty of Versailles and explaining anew his championing of "self-determination," but obliquely announcing new principles of German foreign policy and international conduct.
The Führer announced formally that he considered at an end two treaties: 1) the Anglo-German Naval Treaty of 1935, whereby Germany agreed to limit her navy to 35% of Britain's; 2) the ten-year German-Polish non-aggression treaty signed in 1934. The Führer's reason: Great Britain was "encircling" Germany with alliances (including one with Poland).
No one in the British Admiralty is likely to grow grey-haired over the immediate possibility of Adolf Hitler's small Navy overtaking the over-sized British Navy. The denunciation of the Polish Treaty, however, was far more serious. Herr Hitler disclosed that he had "proposed" to Poland that the Free City of Danzig, now under the League of Nations and the Polish customs union, be returned as a free state to the Reich and that Poland cede Germany a road and a railway right-of-way through the Polish Corridor. In return, Germany promised to recognize Polish economic rights in Danzig, assure Poland a free harbor in Danzig, conclude a new non-aggression treaty to last 25 years—which, Herr Hitler assured his deputies, would "extend far beyond the duration of my own life." Poland's answer was to reject the proposals, mobilize her Army, renew her old alliance with France, make a new one with Britain. By likening Poland to the Czecho-Slovakia of a year ago (a hotbed of anti-German oppressions, he said) Herr Hitler gave clear warning that he may try to deal with the recalcitrant Poles as he dealt with the Czechs.
History.
Smart Speaker Hitler twisted history to suit his argument:
> "The present Greater German Reich contains no territory which was not, from the earliest times, a part of this Reich, which was not bound up with it or subject to its sovereignty."
> "I have given binding declarations to a large number of States. None of these States can complain that even a trace of a demand contrary thereto has ever been made to them by Germany."
>"My own attitude toward the Czech people was never anything else than that of guardian of the unilateral national and Reich interest, combined with respect for the Czech people."
God & Hitler. The messianic dictator laid a strong claim to divine chaperonage:
> "Providence caused me to find the way to free our people from its deepest misery without any shedding of blood, and to lead it upward once more."
> "I should have sinned against my call by Providence had I failed in my endeavor to lead my native country and my German people of the Ostmark (Austria) back to the Reich."