GUARDED REPLY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 May 1938, Page 7

GUARDED REPLY

BRITAIN AND THE CZECH PROBLEM NO PARTICULAR MEASURES SUGGESTED. ONLY AGREED SETTLEMENT URGED. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, May 16. Questions addressed in the House of Commons to the Prime Minister, Mr Chamberlain, on the representations made by the British Minister in Prague on the Sudeten-Deutsche problem were answered by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Mr R. A. Butler, as Mr Chamberlain was confined to his room in Downing Street by a slight attack of gout. Mr Butler said the British Government’s representative in Prague had had conversations with the Czechoslovak President of the Council, Dr M. Hodza, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Krofta, about this question. The British Government had not suggested to the Czechoslovak Government any particular measures or concessions, but had urged the desirability, with which the Czechoslovak Government was in full agreement, of doing everything in its power to further an agreed settlement of the problem.

Discussion had also taken place between the German Foreign Minister, Herr von Ribbentrop, and the British Ambassador in Berlin, Sir Nevile Henderson. “Matters have not yet reached the stage when I can usefully make a further statement,” he added. Asked by Mr Arthur Henderson (Labour-Kingswinford): “Will the Government give no support to any concession which will destroy the effective defence of Czechoslovakia?” Mr Butler replied: “I have stated that we have not suggested to the Czechoslovak Government any particular measure of concession.” He declined to add to the statement 3 when a Conservative backbench member asked whether the British Gpvernment would resist the claims of minorities in Czechoslovakia to dictate to the Czechoslovak Government the nature of its foreign policy. Mr Butler also returned no reply to the Leader of the Opposition Liberal Party, Sir Archibald Sinclair, when, the latter asked: “Does the Governme'nt realise that in making these representations at Prague it is assuming a heavy moral responsibility?” HERR HENLEIN’S VISIT. Mr Butler, in answer to another question, said that the leader of the Sudeten Germans, Herr Henlein, on his recent visit to London, had not been received by any member of the Government. The report of a meeting between the former Dominions Secretary, Mr Malcolm MacDonald, and Herr Henlein was without foundation. Nor did Her Henlein visit the Foreign Office. He had met the Chief Diplomatic Adviser to the Government, Sir Robert Vansittart, with whom he was already acquainted, on a purely private occasion. CONCILIATION ADVISED BUT NOT NATIONAL SUICIDE. ATTITUDE OF THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT. LONDON, May 17. The Paris correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” reports that the Foreign Minister, M. Bonnet, when he received the Czech Minister to France, Herr Osusky, declared that France’s advice to Czechoslovakia was to be as conciliatory as possible to the Sudeten Germans, but not to make concessions amounting to “national suicide.” EARLY NEGOTIATIONS. REPORTED INVITATION BY CZECHOSLOVAKIA. (Recd This Day, 9.55 a.m.) LONDON, May 17. It is learned in London that the Czechoslovakian Government has invited Herr Henlein to enter into negotiations at the earliest moment with a view to a settlement.