STAND BY PLEDGES

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 2, 3 July 1939, Page 9

STAND BY PLEDGES

BRITISH SENTIMENT

AGGRESSION WILL BE RESISTED

NOTABLE SPEECHES

IDENTITY OF PARTY VIEWS

(British Official Wireless.)

(Received July 3, 11 a.m.) RUGBY, July 2. The remarkable rallying of [national sentiment behind the j Foreign Secretary's declaration thajt in the event of further aggression Britain is resolved to use the whole of her strength in fulfilment of her j pledges to resist it—a declaration to which special point has been given by developments and rumours in the last few days concerning Danzig— was illustrated in a notable series of speeches yesterday. . Sir Archibald Sinclair, the Liberal leader: If anyone forces war upon ihis country or on some other country the independence of which we are pledged to defend he will find that there will be no defeatists here. Dr. Ramsay Muir, vice-president of the Liberal Party organisation, expressed the view that the British people were united and resolute to resist any further attack on democracy; and upon the freedom of other nations. Mr. Anthony Eden declared that th« British people were determined that henceforth, there should be neither hesitation before threats nor concession to force. Other speeches were made by Lord Trenchard and Sir Stafford Cripps This demonstration of the identity of view in all parties, combined with the firm and clear statement by Lord Halifax last week, leads Sunday newspapers to emphasise in their comment on the international situation that now there is no excuse for anyone anywhere to misunderstand the position of Britain. INTENTIONS PLACED BEYOND DOUBT. .;,. The "Sunday Times" heads its lead* ing article "British Intentions Placed Beyond Doubt," and, like several other commentators in the last forty-eight hours, it raises the memory of 1914 and the uncertainty which is alleged to have surrounded British policy at that time. The "Sunday Times" also makes the ,point of how different the position is today following the series of declarations by the Government and Lord Halifax's frank and forceful definition of British purposes.

Mr. J. L. Garvin, in "The Observer," says regarding this speech that Lord Halifax "has done what was most needed if there is to be the faintest chance this summer and this month for any peace that would not be a peace of disgrace and disaster."