UNITY WITH FRANCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 February 1939, Page 5

UNITY WITH FRANCE

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER’S DECLARATION COMMON INTERESTS AFFIRMED IMMEDIATE CO-OPPRATION AGAINST ATTACK. STATEMENT BY M. BONNET ENDORSED. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.7 a.m.) RUGBY, February 6. Mr Neville Chamberlain, in the House of Commons at question time, referred to the solidarity of interests uniting France and Britain and declared that any threat to the vital interests of France must evoke British co-operation with France. The Premier was answering a question by Mr Arthur Henderson on M Bonnet’s recent statement, that in the case of a war in which the two countries were involved, all the forces of Great Britain would be at the disposal of France, just as all the forces of France would be at the disposal of Britain, and he said: “This is in complete accordance with the views of Britain.”

Mr Chamberlain then added —and the declaration attracted considerable attention in the House —“It is impossible to examine in detail all the hypothetical cases which may arise, but 1 feel bound to make plain that the solidarity of interests by which France and this country are united is such that any threat to the vital in terests of France, from whatever quarter it came, must evoke the immediate co-operation of this country.”