HITLER’S ACTION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 May 1939, Page 7

HITLER’S ACTION

DENUNCIATION OF TREATIES DISTURBING INFLUENCE ON WORLD. WARNING SPEECH BY BRITISH MINISTER. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, May 2. The Defence Minister, Lord Chatfield, in a speech today, referring to the plans for military training, said it was unfortunate that Germany should have denounced two treaties which Herr Hitler had described in the past as his principal contribution to peace. The denunciation of any treaty at a moment’s notice and irrespective of its terms was bound to have a disturbing influence on the world. The German propaganda machine, while it complained of British policy as one of threats and encirclement, told the Germans that Britain was so decadent tnat she was not prepared to defend herself.

“We hope that we shall not be called on to prove once again that this charge is unfounded and that methods of negotiation might be found, in the higher European interest, to be the best approach to a solution of modern problems,” said Lord Chatfield. The Government’s aim was to see that any negotiations that might prove possible were conducted freely, each party being conscious of the strength of its own cause. NAVAL TREATY NOTE OF DENUNCIATION • ACKNOWLEDGED.. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received This Day, 9.40 a.m.) LONDON, May 3. The Government has formally acknowledged a German note, denouncing the Anglo-German naval treaty.