The New York Times Book of World War II, 1939-1945

by The New York Times

  There was speculation that naval vessels in European waters might be ordered to lend a hand to merchant ships in evacuating Americans.

  Preparations were going forward, too, to keep American industry stable in event of a general European war.

  SEPTEMBER 1, 1939

  BRITISH MOBILIZING

  Navy Raised to Its Full Strength, Army And Air Reserves Called Up

  PARLIAMENT IS CONVOKED

  By FERDINAND KUHN Jr.

  Special Cable to The New York Times.

  LONDON, Sept. 1—All attempts to bring about direct negotiations between Germany and Poland appeared to have broken down tonight as Great Britain mobilized her fleet to full strength, stretched her other defensive preparations close to the limit and began moving 3,000,000 school children and invalids from the crowded cities into the safety of the countryside.

  Censorship was established over cables after London had been cut off for hours from communication with the Continent.

  It was the peak of the crisis, but a day of rumors had not shifted the fundamental issue nor given a conclusive answer to the question of peace or war.

  At midnight the British Government was not yet convinced that Germany really intended to attack Poland and provoke a world war.

  TERMS CALLED SMOKE SCREEN

  All that had happened during yesterday, including the sudden broadcasting of Chancellor Hitler’s sixteen-point demands, was interpreted here as a smoke screen rather than as the flash of guns.

  After hearing Herr Hitler’s “terms” officials here quietly announced tonight that “the government primarily interested in the proposals is, of course, the Polish Government.”

  Until the Polish Government has had time to consider them, it was said in Whitehall that “it would be highly undesirable for any comment to be made.”

  It was fully expected that Poland would reject them later today; indeed, Polish circles here were describing them tonight as utterly unacceptable,” for they would involve dismemberment of Poland and loss of Poland’s capacity to defend her independence. In any event, there was no sign of any intention here to put pressure on Warsaw to accept.

  Much might have been said about the German “proposals” here tonight if the government had not been so anxious to leave the first decision to Warsaw without any prompting. That the British regarded them as artful went without saying, since they conveyed a first impression of reasonableness that was not borne out by the terms themselves.

  Until the announcement on the German wireless tonight, the British Government had not been told about them officially, and the Polish Government was not informed until Josef Lipski, Polish Ambassador to Berlin, visited Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop a few minutes before the broadcast took place.

  Shortly after midnight last night, Sir Nevile Henderson, the British Ambassador in Berlin, had heard the “points” read to him by Herr von Ribbentrop, but the reading was so fast that the Ambassador could not even take notes of them in detail. In any event, he was told Herr Hitler’s “points” were not being given to him or his government officially, on the ground that it was already too late.

  TIME LIMIT EXPIRED

  On Tuesday Herr Hitler had asked that a Polish negotiator should arrive in Berlin within twenty-four hours; and as nobody had arrived from Warsaw when the time limit expired, Sir Nevile was told that the “points” could not even be communicated officially to London.

  The German time table with the Polish Government was even more unusual. About 9 o’clock yesterday morning M. Lipski had asked to see Herr von Ribbentrop. The Ambassador had no response until afternoon, when he was asked by telephone if he were coming as Ambassador or as a plenipotentiary to negotiate. He said “as Ambassador.” He heard nothing more until evening, when he was summoned and was told it was already too late, as the time limit had expired.

  Tonight, after midnight talks in Downing Street, it was said here that Herr Hitler’s “points” had not come in any way as a reply to the British proposals. Great Britain’s whole effort in the past few days has been concerned with the conditions in which direct negotiations between the Germans and Poles might take place.

  In all the diplomatic interchanges of the last week, the British contention has been that the discussions must be on terms of equality, that a settlement should safeguard the essential interests of Poland and that its observance should be secured by effective guarantees.

  If there was any optimism in London yesterday—and one could sense it in spite of all the alarms of the last twenty-four hours—it sprang from a feeling that Great Britain and France were strong enough to face any test.

  Opinion in Downing Street was “tough” as never before. It was being said that “appeasement” was nowhere in evidence and that, far from allowing Germany to overrun Poland, the British and French were ready to hit hard on the very first day.

  Much was being made of alleged deficiencies in the German Army’s equipment and in the condition of German airplanes, which, according to a source close to the government, is far from what “German propaganda” has represented.

  SEPTEMBER 1, 1939

  BRITISH CHILDREN TAKEN FROM CITIES

  3,000,000 Persons Are in First Evacuation Group, Which Is to Be Moved Today

  By FREDERICK T. BIRCHALL

  Special Cable to The New York Times.

  Children from Myrdle School, Stepney, London, being escorted to the station to be evacuated (the first school to do so), on September 1, 1939.

  LONDON, Sept. 1—The greatest mass movement of population at short notice in the history of Great Britain is under way. It is an evacuation, under government order, of little children, invalids, women and old men from congested areas.

  From London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow and twenty-three other cities the great exodus is going on as this dispatch is being written. The numbers are stupendous. More than 3,000,000 of these helpless human beings are being taken out of danger of German bombs.

  Nothing like it has ever been attempted anywhere; yet it is going on without mishap—so far, indeed, without serious confusion.

  Scenes everywhere were much the same whether in the aristocratic West End or the proletarian East Side, but one that this correspondent witnessed was typical both of the method and the neighborhood. This was in Myrtle Street, Whitechapel. Its school had 180 children to be evacuated. They ranged in age from 5 to 16. A large proportion was Jewish.

  The children arrived at the school, most of them with mothers or elder sisters, just as the sun came over the eastern horizon about 5:30 this morning. The teachers were already waiting for them outside the school. One teacher at the gate kept the relatives outside it. Only the children were passed through.

  All apparently were children of poor families, but for this exodus they had been spruced up so that all were neat and clean. Every one, boy and girl alike, carried a knapsack over the shoulders, but the quality of the haversacks varied. Some were of real leather or rubberoid. Some were made out of pillowslips. In each were a change of clothes, toilet articles and a food package sufficient for the day. But there was one invariable piece of equipment. Each child carried a gas mask.

  As they arrived in the school yard the teacher fastened onto each child a stout label on which were the child’s name, number and school. When they were duly labeled they were marshaled into the assembly hall. There the headmistress told them that they were going on a holiday and that it would be nice to begin it with a little prayer. This was the prayer solemnly chanted in the treble child voices:

  “May God take us all in His keeping and bring us safe back to our mummies.”

  At 7 o’clock came the evacuation order with a male guide who was to see the children safely to the station and onto the train. The teachers marshaled the children out and they went along in a ragged procession, the smallest ones hand in hand, with the bigger ones interspersed among them.

  It was only four blocks to the station, but every block was li
ned with anxious mothers who ran alongside with cautions and last messages, which again threatened to upset decorum. So after one block the headmistress called a halt and primly told the disturbers to leave because the children were getting excited. Some obeyed, but others just couldn’t.

  All along the street windows were opened and faces leaned out, the women weeping and the men calling out: “Keep smiling! Keep your head up and keep your feet dry!” The children began to feel that this was a really good joke and forgot their tears.

  Nevertheless, it took fifteen minutes to traverse those four blocks to the station, and there the little scene was soon ended. The children lined up along the platform. There were no more tears, for the weeping mothers had been left outside.

  In a few minutes along came a cheerfully lighted train. The children were shepherded aboard and the train went off to collect more elsewhere. When it departed the children were happily singing. This excursion was really turning out to be a grand holiday.

  There is no panic, no terror about this evacuation. The government has been anxious from the outset to have it understood it did not imply that war was inevitable; it would rather be in the nature of a rehearsal.

  In that spirit it is being taken. Never did the stout souls of British plain folk show to better advantage. Never did the innate courtesy and kindness of the whole populace and the generous hospitality and readiness to help of the well-to-do shine more clearly. It is typical of that spirit and of the real piety of this land that the British Broadcasting Company held over the radio tonight a short religious service in which God was besought to comfort parents separated from their children and give courage to children and invalids, many of whom are leaving home for the first time.

  No American could hear that or could witness the scenes of cheerful fortitude at schools, in little homes, in streets and at railway stations unmoved. This is a staunch and true people. In any “war of nerves” it is not they who will falter.

  SEPTEMBER 1, 1939

  FREE CITY IS SEIZED

  Forster Notifies Hitler of Order Putting Danzig Into the Reich

  Special Cable to The New York Times.

  DANZIG, Sept. 1—By a decree issued early this morning Albert Forster, Nazi Chief of State, proclaimed the annexation of the Free City to the Reich, thus settling by a fell stroke the original point of contention in the international crisis.

  In a telegram to Chancellor Hitler Herr Forster explained his action as necessary to remove “the pressing necessity of our people and State.” Herr Forster also issued a proclamation to the people of Danzig saying the hour awaited for twenty years had arrived because “our Fuehrer, Adolf Hitler, has freed us.”

  [A New York Times dispatch from Berlin this morning said Herr Hitler telegraphed Herr Forster today thanking him and all Danzigers, and stating:

  “The law for reannexation is in effect immediately.”

  The Chancellor stated furthermore, that Herr Forster was appointed head of the civil administration of the Danzig area.]

  In a four-article decree Herr Forster declared the Constitution of Danzig no longer valid. He declared himself sole administrator of the Danzig part of the German Reich, and he declared that until the Reich’s legal system had been introduced by command of Herr Hitler all laws except the Constitution remained in effect. Then Herr Forster immediately wired Herr Hitler of his action, begged the Chancellor to give his approval of the move and through Reich law complete the annexation.

  The German flag is now flying everywhere over Danzig, Herr Forster said, and all church bells resound to the event. “We thank God,” he declared, “that He gave the Fuehrer the strength and the possibility to free also us from the evil Versailles treaty.”

  ‘REPUBLIC IS MENACED’

  By JERZY SZAPIRO

  Wireless to The New York Times.

  WARSAW, Poland, Sept. 1—“The republic is menaced!” This war cry was splashed over all the front pages of Warsaw newspapers yesterday, including the official Gazeta Polska. The gravest view of the situation is taken here in government circles. The occupation by the Gestapo [German secret police] of Danzig’s main railroad station and of the vital junction to Polish-owned railroads in the Free City was regarded as a challenge that could not be tolerated any longer.

  Control of the railroads is one of Poland’s most important prerogatives in Danzig. It is gone by the seizure of the station, through the requisitioning of freight trains and the stoppage of traffic. Other prerogatives like customs control and the free use of the port now exist only on paper. Short of actual occupation of Free City territory by German troops the Nazis already have achieved their aims of Danzig’s incorporation in the Reich.

  Poland is seen here as nearing the limits of her patience and calm. There are already signs of impatience among the people, who are wondering why the war has not begun yet in spite of German provocations and Poland’s preparedness. The semi-official Gazeta Polska for the first time uses the word “war” in its editorial commenting on mobilization.

  REICH HELD RESPONSIBLE

  “Poland’s security is menaced,” it says, “by Germany’s demands and aggressive acts. We have made no demands, territorial or other. We want peace with all our neighbors. We do not want war and hope it will not break out. If it comes, Germany will be responsible for the worst cataclysm in the history of mankind.”

  “With superhuman patience,” says the independent Wieczor, “we have tolerated various aggressive acts in the Reich and Danzig; Hitler’s threats, the concentration of German troops on all frontiers, the occupation of Slovakia, the violation of our rights in Danzig, the territorial claims, the inhuman treatment of the Polish minority in Germany, frontier terrorism—these can last no longer.”

  Yesterday was very critical. When the news of the occupation of Danzig’s station and the hoisting of swastikas in the Free City reached Warsaw after midnight, it was feared a coup would come this morning. Everything was prepared on the Polish side to strike.

  The situation is both tragic and grotesque, it is pointed out here. All Europe is mobilized and prepared for war, but the man responsible for the crisis cannot take the decision of peace or war. Chancellor Hitler’s chances of victory in war or an advantageous agreement lessen daily, it is felt—and yet he hesitates.

  War preparations here were speeded yesterday. Railroads were placed on a war basis and taken over by military authorities. Passenger traffic was greatly reduced. Beginning today special passes will be needed for traveling by private persons. Newspapers are full of descriptions of scenes of unparalleled enthusiasm from all parts of the country after the proclamation of general mobilization.

  Hundreds of thousands of reservists hurried yesterday to join their units. The first day of full mobilization outwardly differed but little from all the other crisis days. Tram and bus services to Warsaw were slightly reduced, but the streets of the capital were still alive with cars and taxicabs, no restrictions having yet been imposed on gasoline consumption. The food situation is unchanged, which means it is satisfactory apart from the milk shortage in the morning owing to the disturbances of suburban traffic.

  In all railroad stations cloakrooms were closed and cleared of trunks and other objects. The reason was the discovery in Warsaw of a German terrorist gang which planned to blow up several public buildings at the outbreak of war.

  SEPTEMBER 1, 1939

  WASHINGTON VIEWS THE CRISIS GRAVELY

  Outbreak of Hostilities Now Only Matter of Hours, Some Officials Believe

  By HAROLD B. HINTON

  Special to The New York Times.

  WASHINGTON, Aug. 31—Officials, guided only by incomplete and delayed dispatches from Europe, were inclined today to take the gravest view of the situation abroad, some of them fearing war was merely a matter of hours. Only private and confidential opinions were expressed, as both the State Department and the White House maintained official silence.

  President Roosevelt spent most of his day reading press bulletins w
hich were relayed to him and listening to radio news broadcasts. Late in the afternoon, he motored to Carderock, Md., a few miles from Washington, to inspect the Navy Department’s new testing tank there, where large-scale ship models are put through their paces under various conditions. On his return he detoured a short distance to look at the site of the new Naval Hospital under construction at Bethesda, Md.

  The terms for a peaceful solution of the crisis outlined in a Berlin broadcast were felt to leave little hope of averting conflict, because they were considered obviously unacceptable to Poland.

  Hitler acts against Poland: The port of Gydnia, north of Danzing (toward top of the map) was blockaded this morning. At Glewitz (shown by cross) artillery fire was heard after a Polish-German skirmish had been reported there. Cracow, to the east, was among Polish cities said to have been bombed.

  EXPECT POLAND TO FIGHT

  The general belief here is that Poland will fight if Germany makes any move into Danzig and that Great Britain and France will at once join as belligerents. The continued German intransigence on the Danzig question, despite the repeated appeals and representations from almost every quarter of the globe, has tended in the past few days to diminish official optimism that war will be averted.

  SEPTEMBER 2, 1939

  ROOSEVELT PLEDGE

  He Promises Efforts to Keep U. S. Out of War—Thinks It Can Be Done

  By FELIX BELAIR Jr.

  Special to The New York Times.

  WASHINGTON, Sept. 1—President Roosevelt pledged the nation today to make every effort to keep this country out of war. He said he hoped and believed it could be done.