Healing War Wounds

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 331, 17 April 1928, Page 9

Healing War Wounds

GERMANY’S TASKS IN EUROPE

Birkenhead and Stresemann Talk

THE spirit of conciliation and co-operation i> abroad : Europe to-day. A graceful exchange of compliment was made when the Earl of Birkenhead, who is visiting Germany, attended a luncheon given by Herr Stresemann

Reed. 9.5 a.m. LONDON, Monday. Herr Stresemann, German Foreign Minister, giving a luncheon to the Earl of Birkenhead and other British visitors to Berlin, said that mutual confidence among leading personages and respect for the others’ achievement was essential to heal the wounds of war. He paid tribute to Lord Birkenhead in reference to British esteem of German achievements, even in the darkest hours of the war. He hoped that the personal confidence between Sir Austen Chamberlain and himself would be extended, strengthening Anglo-German welfare and understanding. Earl Birkenhead congratulated Germany on the Bremen’s exploit. He emphasised that the prosperity of the nations, and perhaps the existence of European civilisation, w'ould depend on peaceful co-operation between the nations who fought in the war. Britain had every reason to respect the

strength, scientific organisation, and courage of the German troops, and Germany’s tremendous efforts to overcome her difficulties since the armistice. Britain fully realised the great part that German spirit and organisation played in European reconstruction. The German Foreign Office insists that there was no political significance in the luncheon and that it was simply a social courtesy.