BRITAIN & GERMANY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 February 1939, Page 7

BRITAIN & GERMANY

LORD HALIFAX ON HITLER’S SPEECH HOPES OF LONG PERIOD OF PEACE. THE DUTIES OF RESPONSIBLE STATESMEN. " (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.21 a.m.) RUGBY, February 3.

In a speech at Hull, Viscount Halifax, Foreign Minister, dealt at some length with Herr Hitler’s recent speecn. He took exception to Herr Hitler’s suggestion that the last war was waged to exclude Germany from world trade, pointing out that Germany was England's best foreign customer before the war and that German and British trade had flourished together. No two countries were more closely bound together by commercial and financial partnership than Germany and Britain. Herr Hitler, said Lord Halifax, had predicted a long period of peace, and no one hoped more devoutly than he (Lord Halifax) did that this prediction would be fulfilled, for with a real assurance of peace, economic development would be possible. The Foreign Secretary also commented on a statement a few weeks ago in which President Roosevelt gave striking expression to ideals many of which were held in common by the American and British peoples. In these times, which were revolutionary, they must recognise that things would be done which shocked the moral sense of the people, but responsible statesmen must, however, bear in mind that the end of all their efforts must be to resist forces that would destroy peace. Lord Halifax went on to pay a tribute to the perseverance and courage of Mr Chamberlain in his efforts to restore confidence in Europe, and added that it was in the spirit of these efforts that Mr Chamberlain had gone to Rome.