ARMS LIMITATION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 December 1938, Page 8

ARMS LIMITATION

HOPES OF THE BRITISH PEOPLE

MR CHAMBERLAIN SHOCKED.

AT BEING CALLED “THAT OLD MAN.”

(Received This Day, 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, December* 13. Alluding to British rearmament, Mr Chamberlain said it was the British people’s hope that'these armaments might never be required. “Certainly that they will not be required for aggressive purposes,” he said, “but none would be more glad than he to 'Welcome a limitation or reduction by international agreement. He continued: “I have recently sustained a certain shock in seeing myself described as “that old man,” but in one respect, perhaps, the passage of the

years has left its mark —in a recognition of the futility of ambition, if ambition leads to a desire for domination, for again history teaches that attempts at domination are never long successful and have never added to the happiness of the nations which attempted it. Past experience has shown that there are innate resistant forces arising from' the fear of a loss of liberty, combined with the ever-present passion for national self-expression, which make domirtation difficult and precarious. It is the absence of peace of mind which today weights upon the world, and by destroying'confidence prevents a reaping of the material advantages of human progress.”

Mr Chamberlain concluded by appealing to the nations,, through the Press, to realise that happiness can only be attained if we cease seeking for points of difference and search instead for points of agreement. He described British relations with France as being beyond mere legal obligations, since they were founded on identity of interests.