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"No; this time England will not forget, will not slush indiscriminate sponges over all available blackboards. Mr. Eden has said so in the case of Bulgaria but why only Bulgaria? Hungary is an even worse case. We have been regaled for generations with the legend that Hungary loves us. She has not only successfully dissembled that love but invariably tried to kick us downstairs whenever the landing looked dark enough. This also we shall not forget merely because some counts got some clothes in Sackville Street and some barons bilked some bookmakers. Nor shall we judge Rumania by her contributions to Xylophony. It is not of much import or sustenance to us that the Finns did well at their preparatory school when they have had to be expelled from their clubs. The 'Era of False Values' is closed. We shall see that it remains closed; but there will be some accounts to settle. . . .
"We have just received fresh and circumstantial evidence of the beastliness and ghastliness being perpetrated in Poland and in varying scales through all the 14 countries invaded by the German sadists. Let us at least proclaim that the offenders will be specifically remembered. The big shots go without saying; but there are legions of small squirts, SS men and 'Death's Head' camp guards who should pay the same price."
Sampling London's crowds, reporters of the Columbia Broadcasting System decided that the weight of sentiment was somewhat on the skeptical side. Said a sampled editor: "America is in the peace before she is in the war." Said a theatrical producer: "Sounds like a report from our yachting correspondent." Said an undescribed Briton: "One day the Americans decide by one vote to keep an army; the next day they decide the future of the world." A man in a pub: "Those eight points are too soft. The only thing to do with them Jerries after the war is to keep them under your thumb." Unnamed Prime Minister of an occupied country: "For me, I must confess it was disappointing." Widespread was the British feeling of disappointment that the Roosevelt-Churchill high-seas drama had not led to some more positive announcement than the high-flown peace aims.
The London News Chronicle hailed the Eight Points, saying: "This morning the enslaved peoples of Europe will feel the chains lie a little more lightly upon them." But actually no one as yet knew how the people of the world—enslaved or otherwise—felt, whether or not millions took heart as they supposedly did from Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points 23 years ago.
For their benefit the British broadcast the Eight Points in 40 languages, 300 broadcasts in three days.
* The Nazi radio reminded him: "It seems advisable to hold this Moscow conference ... as soon as possible, for otherwise the German Armed Forces might appear at the conference table."