CHORUS OF APPROVAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 April 1939, Page 7

CHORUS OF APPROVAL

PRESS COMMENT ON BRITISH

POLICY MOMENTOUS STEP FORWARD TAKEN. REPLY TO GERMAN CHARGES. LONDON, April 14. Newspapers today unanimously approve of the guarantees given to Greece and Rumania. The "Daily Telegraph” says that the debate revealed an impressive unanimity on the rightness and need for measures to halt the march of Power politics and the threat to world peace. The “Daily Mail” believes that the new British policy of selected security should be reciprocal. It approves of not denouncing the Anglo-Italian Pact. The "News Chronicle” welcomes Mr Chamberlain's statement as being stronger and more precise than was expected. It believes that the tendency to "wobble toward appeasement” has been arrested by the all-round pressure of public opinion. It regards the paucity of signs of collaboration with Russia as the chief weakness, but congratulates the Government on taking the first step toward what can be made into a real system of collective resistance to aggression. The "Daily Herald,” supporting Mr Attlee’s arguments, declares that Anglo-French-Russian co-operation is the only basis on which European collective security can be built. It urges a seven-Power conference between Britain, France, Poland, Russia, Greece, Rumania, and Turkey to create a real defensive front. "The Times” says that British policy has taken another momentous step forward. The engagements were not lightly undertaken, but they represent a considered national decision, exacted by a course of events to which no other answer was possible. It urges that it is possible for the Balkan countries, with western support, to form a bloc, the strength of which would be a deterrent to predatory onslaughts. Referring to the German charges of encirclement, “The Times” declares that it could not pay a greater tribute to the patience and resolution with which Britain has refused, even to the point of peril, to join any attempt at circumscribing German activities till they outran even a show of legality.

GREAT PEACE BLOC

MR WINSTON CHURCHILL’S ADVOCACY. NEED OF RESOLUTION & VIGOUR. LONDON, April 14. Mr Winston Churchill, speaking last night, said: “Now we have embarked on a new policy among peace-seeking Powers —a great peace bloc against further aggression—let us go forward with resolution 'and vigour. “Mr Chamberlain and the Government have rightly decided to make a

stand with other peace-loving peoples against the encroachment and aggression of the Nazi Powers. We must carry that through in agreement with other countries. “The Italian incursion into Albania violated the Anglo-Italian Agreement in two ways. It altered the status quo which it was agreed should not be altered, and it was a troop movement of which no notice was given or agreed on by the contracting parties.”