THE HALIFAX VISIT

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 22, 27 January 1938, Page 5

THE HALIFAX VISIT

MEN WHO PROMOTED IT .

DUMBFOUNDED AT RESULT

The other day I addressed a select gathering in a large industrial city of the Midlands upon British neutrality in the presence of international violence, writes Wickham Steed from London to the "Christian Science Monitor." What I said is of minor interest. The real interest lay in the fact that many of my hearers, including re[putedly hard-headed business men and a distinguished prelate of the Anglican Church, begged me fpr "enlightenment" upon British policy because they felt "utterly bewildered."'. The true causes of their bewilderment may lie deep. On the surface, I found, it was due to the visit recently paid by a leading British Minister. Lord Halifax, to Chancellor Hitler at Berchtesgaden, though not so much to the visit itself as to the propaganda which preceded it and the embarrassed silence of the propagandists which followed it.

Lord Halifax's trip to Germany was, indeed, prepared by intense National Socialist propaganda in England. To this propaganda various British newspapers ana a small but influential group of public men lem their support. It Jiad two main objects. One was to convince British opinion that, at all costs, German "grievances" must. be redressed by the return to Germany of some at least of her pre-war colonies. The other was to spread the idea that if Germany, in need of expansion, should-appropriate Austria or overrun Czechoslovakia, Great Britain must recognise the indwelling righteousness of these proceedings and on no account oppose/them. This latter object was accompanied by a campaign against the—hypothetically harsh—treatment of its German citizens by Czechoslovakia; AN INFORMAL CALL. la the turgid atmosphere engendered by this propaganda an apparently insignificant announcement was made. Lord Halifax, who keeps a pack of fox hounds on his estates in Yorkshire, had accepted an invitation to visit a Hunting Exhibition in Berlin in his capacity .as Master of Fox Hounds. Then it transpired that, during his visit to Berlin, the British Minister would make an informal call upon Herr Hitler, who would be pleased to receive him. Their meeting would be entirely unofficial, but personal contact between the two men might be useful in dispelling misunderstandings.' Obviously something more than the scent of a'fox was in the wind. One British journal imprudently asseverated that Lord Halifax would "explore" German policy. Thereupon a German journal made answer: "Explore! Fiddle-de-dee! German policy is fixed and unchangeable. If Lord Halifax thinks it needs 'exploration' he had better stay at home." Another British jouftial was even less discreet. It alleged that Herr Hitler would offer to drop—or io postpone-^----the German, demand for colonies if Great Britain would give him a free hand in Central Europe and particularly against Czechoslovakia. A CONFUSED BACKGROUND.

This caused another explosion in Berlin. So Lord Halifax- departed under bewildering auspices. Whether he himself ,was bewildered on finding that in order to call'upon Herr Hitler he would have to journey several hundred miles to Berchtesgaden, history does not y*et relate. In any case he went and is credibly reported to have told . Herr Hitler that Great Britain could not be indifferent to changes in Central Europe. What Herr Hitler told him in return is an official secret which has been well kept. But, after his guest had gone, Herr Hitler betook himself to Augsberg where, in a sturdy speech, he told the world in three or, at least, six years' time, people who did not like Germany's colonial demands today would find means of settling them, thanks to the strength of the German Returning to London, Lord Halifax informed, his colleagues who presently informed Canaille Chautemps, Prime Minister, and Yvon Delbos, Foreign Secretary of France, of what Herr Hitler had said. . ... COMPLETE AGREEMENT. The British and French Ministers found themselves in complete agreement. They agreed that the German demands "would require much more extended study," that the French and British Governments have a common interest in maintaining peaceful conditions in Central and Eastern Europe, and that they desire "to co-operate with all countries in the common task of promoting international appeasement by methods of free and peaceful negotiations." . • In this desire there is nothing new. New only was the sudden" silence that fell upon the British newspapers and the group of propagandist politicians that had treated the Halifax visit as the beginning of a great bilateral agreement between Great Britain and Germany. Even they were dumbfounded by uncontradicted reports that. Herr Hitler had demanded for Germany effective tontrol of a good third of Africa, including colonies now belonging to Belgium and Portugal. - It is this sudden silence that bewildered my audience in the great Midland city. I found they could not make British propagandist advocacy of German colonial claims rhyme with the nation-wide precautions which the British Government is taking against air raids, for they have not been ms formed that the Netherlands, Belgium, 3 or even France is planning aerial attack 1 upon England. So they are puzzled; " and they are not far from feeling that a as free citizens of a free country, they " are entitled to know a little more of ' what has been and is going on. I agree with them.