CRITICAL PERIOD

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 128, 1 June 1937, Page 10

CRITICAL PERIOD

NEXT TWO YEARS

MR. CHAMBERLAIN ON BRITAIN'S PART

MAY BE DECISIVE

(British Official Wireless. 1 (Received June 1, 2.30 p.m.)

RUGBY, May 31

In a speech at a meeting of the Conservative Party today acknowledging his election as Leader of the party in succession to Mr. Stanley Baldwin, the Prime Minister said that, like Mr. Baldwin, he was convinced that the best interests of the country would be served by continuance of the national character of the Government.

"These next two years," he said, "may well be critical in the history of Europe. . Whether they end in chaos or in gradual appeasement of old enmity and a restoration of confidence and stability will depend very largely upon the part played by this country, which is bound to be important and may well be decisive. If we are to exert our full influence in the right direction we .shall require something more than devotion and loyalty to a purely party allegiance." TRIBUTES TO MR. BALDWIN. Mr. Chamberlain was received with loud cheers on his first appearance in the House of Commons as Prime Minister. Immediately after questions the Leader of the Opposition (Mr. C. R. Attlee) paid a tribute to Mr. Baldwin, in which the Liberal Leader (Sir Archibald Sinclair) joined, and to which Mr. Chamberlain replied. Mr. Attlee said that future historians no doubt would disagree, as the Opposition did, about the merits or demerits of' Mr. Baldwin's policy and .actions, but he was certain they would be one in acclaiming him as a great Parliamentarian who possessed in singular degree the faculty of judging the temper of the House and responding to its moods, 'and*they would recall him also as one who inspired affection as a man. ■ The passing from the House of a man who for 14 years led a great and historic party and- for the greater part of that time bore a heavy weight of responsibility in difficult and anxious days marked the close of a notable chapter in British Parliamentary history. Mr. Chamberlain, in acknowledging the tributes to his late leader, spoke of.tfiim as one who gave his confidence freely and fully to his colleagues, and was a wise and sagacious Minister and an affectionate friend whose friendship had been to him not only a delight in itself but a liberal education as well.