CENTRAL EUROPEAN CRISIS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 September 1938, Page 6

CENTRAL EUROPEAN CRISIS

Ministerial and Public Opinion in Britain UNIVERSAL CONDEMNATION OF ATTEMPT TO USE FORCE (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.42 a.m.) RUGBY, September 11. The close contact which the Prime Minister (Mr Neville Chamberlain) is maintaining with Viscount Halifax and other leading Ministers is a measure of the deep preoccupation which the situation of danger and suspense in Central Europe is causing in Britain, as well as of the recognition by Ministers of a growing feeling of anxiety in the country at a situation out of which war might arise. While the seriousness of the position is thus recognised, the view taken in official quarters is not unduly pessimistic. Herr Hitler’s speech tomorrow night is awaited in London with a certain anxiety, in view of how much is believed to turn upon it, but it is not forgotten that Herr Hitler has repeatedly expressed a desire for peace and in all responsible quarters here there is every disposition to assume his sincerity. So far as matters at issue between the Prague Government and the Henlein Party are concerned, Britain has never varied in its opinion that, difficult as the problems might be, they ought to be capable of solution by peaceful negotiation. On more than one occasion, the Runciman mission has succeeded in bringing together the representatives of the two sides when negotiations appeared to have come to an end, and in recent days it has contributed to bringing about the offer by Czechoslovakia of fresh proposals. As a result of these new proposals, the gap between the two sides has been narrowed to a point at which, although a good deal more negotiation may be necessary for the elucidation and modification to some extent of these proposals, no justification any longer exists for an abandonment of the method of negotiation or recourse to violence. There is no doubt in Britain’s mind that any attempt to use force to solve the problem after the measure of conciliation shown by Czechoslovakia would incur universal condemnation throughout the world. Even now further setbacks may still be met and an apparent deadlock reached again, but while the Runciman mission remains in Prague, the possibility of mediation is not exhausted, and in Britain's opinion there is no reason why the search for an agreed settlement should be abandoned. Britain has not failed, in a matter which is of concern not only to Britain but to the Commonwealth, to keep the closest touch with the Dominions.