Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1938. DEALINGS WITH DICTATORS.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 December 1938, Page 6

Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1938. DEALINGS WITH DICTATORS.

jriiOM any standpoint of reason and common sense, late developments in both Italy and Germany tend to limit narrowly the possibility of a good purpose being served by the visit Mr Chamberlain and Lord Halifax are about to make to Rome. Indeed, these developments might be regarded fairly as suggesting that the visit had better not be made. The aim of the British Government is to bring about a peaceful understanding bet.ween the totalitarian States and the democracies, but that aim evidently cannot be pursued at all hopefully if the dictatorships, instead of meeting friendly advances halfway, reply to these advances with truculent threats and demands.

In the present instance, nothing had been heard for many years of Italian claims to either Tunisia or Corsica. On the eve of Mr Chamberlain’s visit, however, a sudden outcry against France, and demands for Tunisia and Corsica, have been raised in Italy, apparently at a signal given by the Italian Foreign Minister (Count Ciano) in a speech in the Chamber of Deputies. The circumstances appear to do more than justify the comment of the London “Times” that “it is well to bear in mind that the more one party seems bent on appeasement, the bigger the opportunity may appear to the other to raise the cost of agreement.”

According to one of yesterday’s cablegrams, a reply by Signor Mussolini to a British protest against the anti-French demonstration in Italy may be delayed for a few days ‘ by international events.”

Meanwhile (it is added) though the Press is intensifying its attacks, the Government does not accept responsibility for them.

The one thing perfectly and finally clear is that the Italian Government cannot disclaim responsibility for the continuing demonstration of hostility to France. In Italy no vestige remains of the freedom of the .Press. The newspapers are the obedient servants of the dictatorship and say precisely what they are instructed and permitted to say and nothing else. The current outcry in the Italian Press means simply that the Italian dictatorship is deliberately stirring up hostility to France and it is a preposterous pretence to suggest that it means anything else. 1

The possibilities this situation holds are the more sinister since the German Press, as servile an instrument as that ,of Italy, is vigorously seconding and even amplifying the Italian demonstration. One of yesterday’s cablegrams stated that the German newspapers

continue to greet Count Ciano’s speech with enthusiastic references to the brotherhood in arms of the axis Powers and their readiness to use “all means” to achieve their common political aims. Britain and. France are bluntly told (it was added) that they cannot hold their overseas possessions except by Italy’s and Germany’s goodwill and tnat they will find it cheaper to meet Italian and German conditions for the final pacification of Europe than to resist them.

Even if it be regarded as probable that the immediate Italian object is less to raise new issues than to divert and distract attention from existing issues, such as that of Spain, it can hardly be said that a favourable atmosphere exists in which to pursue the policy of appeasement,

Some thoroughly well-meaning people have claimed that in his intervention in the crisis which centred not long ago on Czechoslovakia, Mr Chamberlain not, only averted Avar, but transformed a menacing situation. Mr Eden Phillpotts, for instance, wrote on this subject:—

Italy is war-weary; Germany, having regained her self-respect, sighs for the return of national liberty and international friendships. Peace is the universal prayer, and in a peace of reason we may give and take, bring truth and humanism to the dictatorial States, and win from them the qualities of self-denial and concentrated purpose that democracies are prone to lack. ... Mr Chamberlain did not manoeuvre for position; he created a new one by an inspiration of pure righteousness that has yet to win the reverence it deserves. *

It is precisely because there is no evidence that the happy state of affairs pictured by Mr Phillpotts has been reached, and some very positive evidence that it has not been remotely approached, that doubts assert themselves as to the mei-its of the policy of appeasement as it has lately been pursued. No doubt many well-intentioned people in Germany and in Italy welcomed Mr Chamberlain’s efforts for peace as heartily as these were welcomed in Britain and in other parts of the Empire. It is not the lovers of peace in Germany and Italy who are determining the policy of those countries, however. There is little enough sign in Italy and Germany of any practical desire for “a return of national liberty and international friendship.” The policy of the dictatorships continues to be compounded largely of aggression and bad faith—features illustrated at the moment in the outcry against France, efficiently echoed and amplified in Germany, and in the continued invasion of Spain. Guile and trickery also enter into the tactics of the dictatorships. It will hardly be a triumph for the policy of appeasement if Mr Chamberlain is able presently to secure an abatement of the outcry against France in consideration, perhaps, of his letting the Spanish issue go.

AN APPEAL NEGLECTED.

JN past years, Masterton and the Wairarapa have put up a creditable record in the purchase of health stamps, by means of which funds are raised for the maintenance of the children’s health camps in which important and lasting benefits are being conferred on many members of the rising generation. The somewhat depressing fact is recorded that sales of health stamps at the Masterton Post Office in November amounted only to £l. Few indeed, it may be hoped, will be content with this poor response to a heart-moving appeal. There can be no doubt about the desirability of enabling the hospitality of the health camps to be extended to as many as possible of the children who stand in special need of attention and care and the sale of health stamps is as good a means as could be devised of enabling all to contribute to that good cause in accordance with their means. Under the plan of a penny for postage and a penny for health, contributions may amount to anything from ;t penny upwards. The thought of the good that may be done on these easy terms should suffice Io ensure a brisk sale of ■health stamps, not least in the weeks of approach to Christmas. It certainly may be hoped that the.poor record of November is no true indication of what the people of Masterton are prepared to do in assisting the health camp movement.