R JOHN SIMON DEFENDS BRITISH POLICY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 October 1938, Page 8

R JOHN SIMON DEFENDS BRITISH POLICY

Submitted in House of Commons • < COMMENTS ON HITLER’S ATTITUDE DISCRIMINATION AGAINST RUSSIA DENIED (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.35 a.m.) RUGBY, October 5. Moving a motion in the House of Commons that the House approves the policy of his Majesty’s Government by which war was averted, Sir John Simon, Chancellor of the Exchequer, said the lesson of the crisis was that the mass of the people of every country were equally horrified at the prospect of war, When the Germany cheered Mr Chamberlain at Munich, eye-witnesses vouched for it that they were not cheering because the Fuehrer was gaining territory or achieving his purposes, but simply and solely because they knew Mr Chamberlain was working for peace. The cheers were cheers for peace. Sir John Simon added that there were two other main reflections arising from the events of the last few weeks. The first was (the gravity of the fact that Herr Hitler had been prepared to invade Czechoslovakia to annex the Sudetenland, and that he had stated he was prepared to risk a world war rather than wait. The second was the fortitude and calmness with which the Czechs had faced the surrender of territory at the insistent demand of Germany, and on the pressure of the British and French Governments. Sir John Simon denied that there had been any discrimination against Russia in the course of the recent negotiations. There was no intention, he added, to exclude her from any future European settlement. Stressing the fact that this was the first occasion on which Herr Hitler had made concessions, Sir J. Simon said: “It must be a very difficult thing for the head of a totalitarian State to retract. It is like a motor-car that has got no reverse gear. Therefore even minor adjustments have significance.”