PEACE FRONT ASSAILED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20021, 21 August 1939, Page 5

PEACE FRONT ASSAILED

GERMANY AND ITALY LACKING CONVICTION SYSTEM OF PROPAGANDA (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (British Oflieinl Wireless.) Reed. 9 a.m. RUGBY, Aug. 19. British commentators waste little time upon the German and Italian misrepresentations of the “peace front” which have become increasingly extravagant and violent. It is not thought that the suggestion that these Powers are ibenit upon aggression is likely to impress any but the most credulous victims of the system of news suppression and! propaganda.

Again the contention that Britain is working "to rivet some of the rigid socalled Versailles system upon Europe will not carry conviction with anyone who has been allowed to read or hear the statements of British policy in the speeches of the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary, which have never failed to express willingness to submit all questions to a peaceful discussion nor to emphasise the constructive aspects of peace.

It is pointed out that there is, in fact, nothing' Rightist about British policy except its opposition—which is fixed and immovable —to the methods which challenge not only the hope of better international order, but the very existence of independent sovereign States, which is the basis of historic European order.

In this connection and with, reference to the Danzig issue, the Spectator is typical in its observation: “If even now, with contact between the Polish High Commissioner at Danzig and the President of (the Danzig Senate as the starting point, discussions could be developed between Poland and Germany pointing to an agreement in no way prejudicial- to Poland’s independence, such a course would have the full approval of Whitehall and the Quai d’Orsay. But ihe gulf between what Germany is at present asking and What Poland could concede, is utterly unbridgeable."

The same conclusion is put in a different way by Time and Tide, which asserts that Danzig itself is a subsidiary issue, and that what Herr Hitler wants is the elimination of Poland' As an independent Power.