BRITISH GOVERNMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 84, 6 October 1938, Page 9

BRITISH GOVERNMENT

DEBATE IN COMMONS

CHALLENGE BY LABOUR

(British Official Wireless.)

That this House approves the policy of his Majesty's Government, by which war was averted in the recent crisis, and supports their efforts to secure a lasting peace.

Sir John Simon said that the lesson of the crisis was that the mass of the people of every country were equally horrified at the prospect of •war. When Germans cheered Mr. Chamberlain in Munich eye-wit-nesses vouched for it that they were not cheering because the Fuhrer had gained territory or was achieving his purposes, but simply and solely because they knew Mr. Chamberlain was working for peace. The cheers were cheers for peace. The speaker returned to the same point later in his speech, but he added to that lesson two other main reflections as arising from the events of the last few weeks. The first was the gravity of the fact that Herr Hitler had been prepared to invade Czecho-1 Slovakia to annex the Sudetenland and that he had stated that he was prepared to risk a world war. rather than! wait. The second was the fortitude and calmness with which the Czechs had faced the surrender of territory at the insistent demand of Germany and on the pressure of the British and French Governments. But at the same time it must be remembered that Czechoslovakia was created in defiance of the principle of self-determination, and Sir John Simon cited in support of tha*t view extracts from the writings of Mr. Winston Churchill and the late Mr. Arthur Henderson. A FUNDAMENTAL DIFFICULTY. Sir John Simon went on to'develop the argument that what he claimed to be the impracticability of the provision for peaceful change. in Article Nineteen; of the League Covenant had combined with the nature of the issue which had arisen in the Sudeten districts of Czechoslovakia to confront Mr. Chamberlain with a difficulty of a "fundamental nature. "While I admit that the solution obtained is open to all sorts of challenges and criticisms," he proceeded, "let us recognise the real character of the problem and how seldom in history it has been resolved without war. It is true that the Munich agreement ■was reached under the pressure of the alternative of instant invasion, but is that Treason enough for rejecting the agreei-i£nt and Referring that Europe •should be plunged into war? I do not think so." Referring to an inquiry by Mr. Anthony Eden in Monday's debate, Sir John Simon said that while it was the dominant aim of Mr. Chamberlain and of the Government to see if, instead of maintaining an unbridgeable gulf for ill purposes between the democracies and -the dictatorships, it was possible to have friendly consultation in the interests of European peace, it -was not, and never had been, the policy of the Government to enter into an exclusive four-Power pact to impose its will on Europe in disregard of other States, great or small, and in particular he denied any discrimination against Russia or intention to exclude her from any future European settlement He agreed with Mr. Eden that the smaller Powers were valuable allies for peace, which it was the object of the Government to strengthen in every way it could. GROUND FOR HOPEFUL VIEW. ' The speaker conceded to those who expressed doubts regarding the Premier's hope that Munich is the prelude to a larger settlement establishing *peace for our time" that there was nothing in the previous actions of Nazi Germany or in Herr Hitler's book, "Mem Kampf," to justify any confident optimism, but he urged that there were certain new facts which had emerged in the last few weeks which might give'ground for a more hopeful view. The first was that for the first time in his (Sir John Simon's) recollection,. Herr Hitler had made some concession. "It must be a very difficult thing for the head of a totalitarian State to retract," he said. "It is like a motor-car that has got no reverse gear. Therefore even minor adjustments have significance." The second new fact was that it was very plain that the dictators clearly realised —and realised by the demeanour of their own well-drilled and submissive populations—that the detestation of war was not confined to the democracies.The third fact was that the British Government and its head were no longer a pure abstraction to the people of Nazi Germany. Not all the machinery of Dr. Goebbels could prevent the visible presence of the British Prime Minister from being Jmown to the German people. REVELATION TO GERMAN PEOPLE. . "He is a personality who has descended from the skies and made contact with the Fuhrer/'he said. "He has done, and impressed the German people with doing, what no other Spokesman of the British democarcy in recent years has ever done. He has brought to the German people for the first time the realisation that there is at the head of the British Government a man who is pursuing a positive policy for peace. Anybody who knows anything of the difficulty of penetrating that thick mist of misunderstanding ought to acknowledge that this is a most significant change. Fourthly and lastly among the new facts is that Which brought the national awakening of Britain to the needs of the hour of danger. . He commented favourably on the results of the trial of the defence preparations which the precautionary measures had necessitated, and said that while shortcomings had been revealed there had also been demonstrated the rapidity with which the population could adapt itself and the calmness with which it would meet danger. "If the totalitarian States imagined, as they might have been told, that democracy is without unity, then they have been very promptly (disillusioned. LABOUR AMENDMENT. Mr. Arthur Greenwood proposed an Jonendment for the Labour Opposition £s follows: — 3&e House« while being profound-

(Received October 6, 11 a.m.) RUGBY, October 5. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir John Simon, moved in the House of Commons today:

ly relieved that war has been averted for the present, does not approve the policy which led to the sacrifice of Czechoslovakia under threat of armed force, the humiliation of Britain, and its exposure to grave dangers, and, realising the intense desire of all peoples for lasting peace, demands active support of the method of collective security through the League of Nations and the initiation by the Government of immediate proposals for summoning a world conference to consider the removal of economic and political grievances imperilling peace. Mr. Henderson said that the only positive suggestion in the Premier's statement was for the intensification of re-armament—a bleak and grim outlook for the country and for the world. . MR. CHURCHILL CRITICAL. In the opinion of Mr. Winston Churchill (Conservative), who spoke next, recent events constituted an unmitigated defeat for France and Britain. He considered it a fraud and a farce to invoke the name of self-determina-tion in connection with the AngloFrench proposals, and, recalling his demand in the spring for a British guarantee of Czechoslovakia, said that the Government had refused it when it would probably have saved the situation, and in the end gave it when it was too late, and the Government now proposed to renew it when they had no longer the power to make it good. The question of Czechoslovakia Mr. Churchill considered was past and done with, and he concerned himself chiefly with the future as it affected the Western democracies —a future which he depicted in the most gloomy characters. The disaster which had befallen France and Britain, he said, was of the first magnitude, and the whole equilibrium of Europe had been deranged in consequence. It must be expected that all the countries of Central and Eastern Europe would make the best terms they could with the triumphant Nazi Power, which could now be extended quite smoothly and quite swiftly without filing a single shot. FATAL COMPROMISE. Mr. Churchill calculated the enormous strategic gains for Germany and said that in one or two years' time a situation might easily arise in which they would have to bitterly recognise that by recent policy the safety and even the independence of France and Britain had been deeply and perhaps fatally compromised. He said that what was unendurable was the thought of the country falling into the orbit of Nazi German domination. He foresaw that this also involved the surrender of territory and the surrender of liberty, and foretold the advent of a policy carrying with it restraint of freedom of speech in Parliament, on the platform, in the Press, and on the wireless. Between the German and British peoples, Mr. Churchill declared/ there would always be friendship, but between the British democracy and the Nazi Power there could never be confident and truly friendly, though there could be correct and peaceful, relations. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) Mr. Churchill said that England had sustained a total and unmitigated defeat, and France an even worse. one. "The utmost the Prime Minister has been able to secure," he said, "has been that Herr Hitler, instead of snatching victuals from the table, has been content to have them served to him course by course. The terms which Mr. Chamberlain brought from Munich could easily have been agreed upon through diplomatic channels at any time during the summer. I believe that the Czechs, if they had been left to themselves, knowing they were not going to get help from the Powers, would have been able to make better terms. They could hardly have got worse. We are in the presence of a disaster of the first magnitude for England and France. We cannot consider Czechoslovakia's abandonment after what happened last month. It is the most grievous consequence we have yet experienced of what we have done and left undone during the past five years—five years of futile good intention." PREMIER ON CZECH SURRENDER. The Prime . Minister, replying to Captain W. W. Benn (Labour), said it would be a mistake to assume that the whole of the Czech defences would be handed over intact. The areas being occupied on October 1 and 7 were mostly outside the defences. It was impossible to state what proportion would be included by October 10 until the International Commission had reached a decision. He added that the Commission was considering the question of the removal of guns and other materials from the zones coming under occupation. „ Dealing with the fate of the Czechs who were held as hostages, Mr. Chamberlain said that the British representatives on the International Commission had been instructed to press for their release as soon as possible. (British Official Wireless.) A situation, in his estimation, so grave and even calamitous had only arisen through neglect of his repeated advocacy in recent years that the Government and the country should look to its defences. For that neglect past and present Prime Ministers, Governments, and Opposition parties were all accorded a share of the blame. The situation could only be*retrieved at this late hour by an effort at re-arma-ment the like of which had never been seen before, and he ended with a strong appeal for supreme national resolution to recover the moral health and martial vigour so that Britain should take her stand again for freedom as in old times. Brigadier-General Sir H. Page Croft (Con.) said he found himself in complete disagreement with Mr. Churchill. The escutcheons of Britain and France were absolutely without a speck of dust, and Britain was hailed throughout the world, as .a. maker of peace.