NO. 17.              FRIENDS OF EUROPE INFORMATION SERVICE.                               6th JULY, 1939.
 
 
(For Private Circulation Only).
                                                            
 
                                                            
 
             AIMS AND METHODS OF GERMAN POLICY.             
 
 
(The following Memorandum is a digest of notes written by a
 
 
competent Swiss after a lively discussion with a representative
 
 
German Nazi.    The discussion, which took place just before Lord 
 
 
Halifax's recent speech, was so heated that the Gorman may have
 
 
said more than h'e had intended to say. The conclusions from his
 
 
statements were drawn by his interlocutor).
 
 
    
                             I.                             
 
 
The ultimate aim of German policy is to create a 
 
World Empire of unassailable strength without the risks
 
of a world war.
 
 
In 1938 the immediate aim of German policy was to 
 
subjugate Czechoslovakia.    In 1939 its immediate aim is 
 
to subjugate Poland without war, or, at worst, after a 
 
short localised war.    Germany does not yet feel strong
 
enough to face any long war.
 
 
The very conditions that bid Hitler avoid a long war 
 
are, however, driving him to carry through, without delay, 
 
another stage of his programme by the subjugation of Poland
 
and of the Baltic and the Danubian States.
 
 
Only when this has been done will there be a prospect 
 
of comparative tranquillity while Germany organises and co-
 
ordinates, politically and economically, the territories be-
 
tween her own borders and those of Russia.    Then further 
 
stages in his programme will be either:
 
 
(1) To undermine, disintegrate and revolu-
 
tionise Soviet Russia; or
 
 
(2) To link the Russian "Raum" or "space" 
 
with the "Imperial Space" of the great German 
 
World Empire; or
 
 
(3) In the event of resistance to win a war 
 
against the Western Powers.
 
 
Hitler is now seeking good relations with Moscow in the 
 
hope of localising or isolating his conclift with Poland, not 
 
because his "imperial alms" in the East have changed.  Only
 
in the light of these aims can his methods for the subjuga-
 
tion of Poland be understood.
 
 
                            II.                             
 
 
Up to the end of 1938 Hitler believed that his Eastern 
 
policy could be carried through with Polish help.    He in-
 
tended, therefore, to maintain the German-Polish pact of