Mr Chamberlain’s Peace

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22521, 1 October 1938, Page 16

Mr Chamberlain’s Peace

When Mr Chamberlain made his dramatic and

courageous journey to Berchtesgaden to see Herr Hitler, a Polish newspaper offered him

the sublime thought that even if he failed to avert war he would probably be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. And although Mr Roose-

velt and Signor Mussolini have more recently emerged as candidates for this high honour,

the overwhelming weight of opinion throughout the world undoubtedly, and justly regards Mr Chamberlain as the man who did more

than any other to save the peace of Europe. The revelations of the last few days make ( it abundantly clear that his visit to Berchtesgaden was just in time to prevent a German invasion of Czechoslovakia and that his unremitting search for a formula after the Godesberg impasse was mainly responsible for the intervention of Signor Mussolini and the calling of the Munich conference. Without any undue minimisation of the value of Mr Roosevelt’s appeals and exhortations, it can be said that no government as firmly determined as was the United States Government to play no direct part in European politics and to assume no responsibilities could hope, in a naked contest of power politics, to influence decisively the course of events. Signor Mussolini undoubtedly played a - definite and useful part in the. calling Of the Munich conference; but in relation to the crisis as a whole it was hardly a major part. Only the Prime Minister of Great Britain was in a position to command the confidence of all the governments concerned, directly or indirectly, in the crisis. And the commanding position which Mr Chamberlain acquired by virtue of his country’s peculiar standing in Europe he consolidated by an unforced revelation of remarkable personal qualities. In a Europe deafened by the hysterical clamour of dictators, his quiet earnestness and humility, his refusal either to be hurried or to be halted, became almost spectacular. To millions condemned to blind obedience and living in the shadow of a catastrophe they were powerless to avert, his voice was the voice of reason and of humanity. That so sensible and unexciting a man should, in these days of synthetic greatness, become Europe’s outstanding statesman fs perhaps the most hopeful of the many startling events of the last few days.