SINISTER MOVES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 August 1938, Page 6

SINISTER MOVES

RIBBENTROP CONSULTING AMBASSADORS STATEMENT OF THE CZECH POSITION. DECISION IN HANDS OF FRANCE & BRITAIN. (Reed This Day, 1.20 p.m.) LONDON, August 26. The “News Chronicle’s” Berlin correspondent says Herr von Ribbentrop (German Foreign Minister) has called a conference of Ambassadors and Ministers of North and South America to report on their reactions in the event of a European war and their attitude towards German policy generally, particularly that of South America, where their is a growing influence of the United States and an' increasing hostility towards Germany. The “Daily Telegraph’s” Prague l correspondent says the authorities . know the Henleinist proclamation and German demarche are closely connected. The proclamation is part of a plan to provide an excuse for a German invasion. It is little less than a summons to civil war. When the conflict has been provoked, the excuse for invasion will be found. Doctor Hubert Ripka, leading Czech publicist, in the closest touch with the President (Dr Benes), setting out what can be regarded as the Czechs’ Idst word, declares: “We are prepared to revise our proposals and adopt a new basis for negotiations, but not to Accept anything laming our independence. Only the Great Powers can avoid a catastrophe of war by making Germany realise, before it is too late, that an attack on Czechoslovakia will mean a European war. In the hands of responsible French and British statesmen lies the decision whether peace is to be maintained or shattered in a new and terrible war.”