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"Reparation." Said the British Sovereign: "The documents which have been published since the beginning of the war clearly explain its origin and establish the responsibility for its outbreak. . . . The larger purposes for which my peoples are now fighting are to secure that Europe may be redeemed, in the words of my Prime Minister in the United Kingdom, 'from perpetually recurring fear of German aggression so as to enable the peoples of Europe to preserve their independence and their liberties.' " He would always be willing to examine the basis of an "honorable peace," he said, but he did not say when, where or with whom.
President Lebrun took half as many words to express the Allies' thoughts twice as clearly: "France has taken up arms to put a definite end to enterprises of violence and force which for two years, in contempt of the most solemn engagements, in violation of the pledged word, already have subjugated or destroyed three nations in Europe and threaten today the security of all. A lasting peace cannot be established except by reparation of the injustices that force imposed on Austria, Czecho-Slovakia and Poland. . . ." Führer Hitler was scheduled to make his reply this week, but it seemed unlikely that he would see his way to repairing the "injustices" toward the three countries listed by the French President.
Meanwhile, Armistice Day, the date widely feared as the time for a big German push, came and went. Belgian and Dutch nerves were calmed a trifle. It seemed certain that Germany had delivered no ultimatum to the Low Countries. Then what had the Nazis done or said to spread fear? The Cabinets of the two nations kept their own counsel, and, for once, even "well-informed circles" were singularly uninformed. Best and most tenable guess was made by a New York Times correspondent at Amsterdam:
"The Germans, having informed The Netherlands and Belgium that an attack of extreme violence was scheduled to start before November 15, asked what would be the attitude of the Low Countries in case of mass flights over their territory with the possibility of more or less forced landings and more or less forced shelterings of submarines in their territorial waters. The reply obviously was, 'absolute neutrality will be maintained by all means.' . . . Berlin thereupon did not announce whether there was a consideration of any change of plan or not. Complete uncertainty is the result."