Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 1939. BRITAIN, FRANCE AND POLAND.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 March 1939, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 1939. BRITAIN, FRANCE AND POLAND.

TODAY, freedom, democracy and peace are menaced to a X oreater extent, than ever known in the history of the world. . Never was it more necessary than now for Britain and France to stand firmly together and never before has Die ne e dki a alliance between these two countries been mo e eAident. Unquestionably-the meeting of the president .of France an our own King‘in England the other day, led to a closer b°nd o friendship between two nations whose aims are mi ii iison. 1 Entente Cordiale, fathered so wiseley by Kmg E^ waic J TJJ’’ has developed to such an extent that today there is an. assn ante that all the resources of both countries would be pooled ±oi mutual protection against an enemy- It was King Ed ware wn brought Britain, France and Russia together in. a better unde - standing of each other and this policy bore good fruit in the Great War. These three nations must stand firmly togethei ao'ain The defeat of France by Germany would inevitably spell the doom of the other two nations Britain has committed herself farther than ever before in her diplomatic relations mt i France and the political parties in the latter country must realise that friendship with Britain must be the basic p ncipje of France’s foreign policy. Mr. N. Chaiabei^ a ™. v Britain’s full co-operation with France, and the British Al is to be built up to such a strength that it will afford substantial aid to France in the event of war. “England and France aie drawn together in living friendship,” said M. Lebrun, m replying to the toast of his health at the Guildhall on his recent vis to London. “Today there exists between the British and French peoples a solidarity of interests of thought and ot sentiment.” These words expressed a fundamental truth.

. It i.s on this strengthening of the Anglo-French bonds of friendship that the attitude of Poland has a bearing, loland occupies the key position in Eastern Europe. Her army was built- up aftef the Great War with the assistance of the Irtench General Staff, and furnished with French war material. Poland finally decides for France, with whom she is allied by a pact of mutual assistance, it will be dangerous for the two Axis Powers to risk a military conflict m the west. If it appeared after Munich that France had turned her back on Eastern Europe there is today evidence of a growing interest on the part of France in Poland. In Warsaw, great hopes hax e been awakened by the recent diplomatic offensive of Britain, and here Poland believes she can see an attempt to revive the system of collective security whose centre-points would be London-Paris-Warsaw-Moscow. A close rapprochement with London and Paris is demanded in the life interest of Poland today. France is prepared to reckon the Vistula as her frontier anc. British solidarity with France extends this far, then Poland will doubtless decide that her interests are those of Britain and France - and Britain, with a strong moral credit in loland, is capable of winning Poland for the peace front. At the moment Hie position of Poland is one of the vital factors in the crisis which has followed Germany’s annexation of Czecho-Slovakia and Meme I.