Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1938. RETREAT AND A GUARANTEE.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 September 1938, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1938. RETREAT AND A GUARANTEE.

TN refusing to accede to the request of the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons that Parliament should be summoned to discuss the international situation, the British Prime Minister (Mr Neville Chamberlain) stated that he was engaged “in difficult and delicate negotiations with the object of finding a peaceful solution of a problem which, if not handled'with the utmost care, might have serious consequences for Britain. Calling Parliament together now would require me to participate in debates while the negotiations were still in progress and would make my task impossible.” Mr Chamberlain added that Parliament would be summoned as soon as matters had proceeded far enough to enable him to make a statement. As a whole, these observations imply that there is at least a possibility of the negotiations to which Mr Chamberlain alludes having some advantageous outcome. Unfortunately it is all but completely demonstrated that there are no grounds whatever for the hope that Mr Chamberlain thus implies. There is, on the contrary, much to suggest that his direct approach to Herr Hitler has either had no effect at all, or has contributed to a rapid deterioration in the European situation. The details of the AngloFrench proposals to Czechoslovakia are ostensibly withheld from publication for the time being, but the essentialsof these proposals are made only too clear in the officially reported reply of the Czech Government and in other details —above all in the resignation of the Government and the appeal of the retiring Premier to President Benes to form a new national-cum-military Government. It is sufficient for all practical purposes that the British and French Governments have proposed the cession of some Czech territory and other concessions to Nazi Germany. Assuming that Mr Chamberlain actively supported these proposals in the name of European appeasement, it is manifest that he has not attained his object and that the actual- effect has been to stimulate Nazi aggression. Sufficient evidence on that point appears in the fact that the Nazi Press is now declaring that it is too late to talk merely of redressing the grievances of the Sudeten Germans and that the question now to be considered is whether Czechoslovakia is- to continue to exist. It is important to remember here that in Nazi Germany the Press is strictly controlled and says only what it is permitted and instructed to say by the dictatorship. The present campaign of envenomed vituperation in the German Press can be regarded as nothing else than a development of the tactics of the man with whom Mr Chamberlain is negotiating. It is not lightly to be contended that Britain should have upheld the integrity and independence of Czechoslovakia by going to war, or even by taking the risk of being involved in war. It was for responsible Ministers, with all the facts before them, to determine whether Britain should or should not join with France and Russia in warning Germany that an attack on Czechoslovakia would be resisted by force of arms. It does not by any means follow, however, that the negotiations into which Mr Chamberlain has entered with Herr Hitler are justified, or that they can be expected to improve in any way whatever upon what would have happened if Britain had simply held aloof. If these negotiations were and are justified, that fact has yet to be made apparent. In accepting the Anglo-French proposals, the Czech Government said in part• In accepting the plan, the Government stipulates that if Czechoslovakia is attacked nevertheless France and Britain must come to her help. If this stipulation has any force—as it may have in view of reports that France, Britain and other Powers are to ■ guarantee Czechoslovakia’s new frontiers—Britain will be accepting a heavy and onerous liability she has hitherto refused to accept. Dismembered and disorganised, with her strongest frontier laid open, Czechoslovakia will be directly exposed to further Nazi aggression and in that state will be much less easily protected and defended than as she is at present constituted. Force and point are thus given to the note of serious warning sounded by Mr Anthony Eden in a speech reported yesterday. Disturbing and unpromising as the situation and outlook are at the moment, there are poor enough grounds for the outcry of criticism that is being raised in the United States. Denouncing the failure of France and Britain to stand by Czechoslovakia, the American newspapers proclaim that it is more than ever necessary that the United States should maintain a policy of isolation. .The, com- ; manding fact, that, participation by.the United States-in i fi scheme- of -collective siecurity. would-have transformed ■ the-position and outlook; in Europe is conveniently overlooked. There is point in the jibe of a Canadian news-paper-that the people’ of the United States are prepared to fight for the Czechs'to the last Frenchman. If the United States ever agrees to co-operate with other peaceful nations in putting even economic pressure on aggressors —which no doubt would entail some risk of war—the position and outlook in Europe and in some other parts of the work! will thereafter be improved remarkably. Until that measure of common purpose and action is achieved—it has to be admitted regretfully that it is not in immediate prospect —American criticism of what other nations do or leave undone in the international field will continue to carry very little weight indeed.