NO SACRIFICE OF LIBERTY FOR SAKE OF PEACE

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 149, 20 March 1939, Page 9

NO SACRIFICE OF LIBERTY FOR SAKE OF PEACE

Declaration By Mr. Chamberlain

UTMOST RESISTANCE TO CHALLENGE TO BRITISH FREEDOM Confidence Shattered By Recent Events (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, March 17. Amid wildly enthusiastic applause Mr. Chamberlain, speaking in Birmingham, declared that, lovey of peace, as he was, he would not sacrifice for it the liberty Britain had enjoyed for centuries and would nevet x surrender. That he should feel called upon to make that declaration, he said, was a measure of the extent to which events in the last few days had shattered confidence. No greater mistake could be made, he repeated, than to suppose because it believed war to be senseless and ciuel the British nation had lost its fibre or would not lesist to the utmost of its power a challenge to its liberty. For that declaration he was convinced he had “not merely the support, sympathy, and confidence of my fellow-countrymen and women but that I shall have the approval of the whole British Empire and all other nations who value peace indeed, but who value freedom even more.” * ' Earlier in his speech, after defending his actions at Munich, Mr. Chamberlain said that today he shared the British people’s disappointment and indignation that hopes raised then had been so wantonly shattered. How could events this week be reconciled with the assurances which Herr Hitler gave him at Munich? Surely, as a joint signatory, he was entitled, if Herr Hitler thought that the Munich Agreement ought to be undone, to the consultation provided for in the Munich declaration. Was this the end of an old adventure or the beginning of a new? It was a question, Mr. Chamberlain added, .which demanded the serious consideration of all. In the light of the answer to tl|at question the Premier indicated that every aspect of British national life might have to be looked on from a new • angle.