DEASONS FOR ANXIETY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 August 1939, Page 7

DEASONS FOR ANXIETY

SEEN BY MR CHAMBERLAIN & LORD HALIFAX IN EUROPE AND FAR EAST. EVILS OF PRESS VILIFICATION EMPHASISED. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. August 8. In the filial debates on foreign affairs in both Houses of Parliament before the recess, Ihe Prime Minister Mr. (’haniberlain. and the Foreign Secretary. Lord Halifax, made it (dear t hat (lie British Government could not regard the immediate sitnal ion eit her in Europe or She Far Last without anxiety. Observers in London agree that the efforts made since March to build up the anti-aggression front have had considerable effect in discouraging a policy of adventure, and therefore are serving the sole purpose for which, as British statesmen have all along insisted, they were undertaken, namely, the restoration of confidence.

Diplomatic circles here feel that responsible leaders in all countries realise the importance of preventing a growth of tension. Lord Halifax drew attention, however, to a source of danger to peace which still cannot be ignored when he told the House of Lords: “The task of the statesmen of today is made doubly difficult by those official propagandists and unofficial journalists and writers who deliberately invent, exaggerate or distort events and their implications.”

Mr Chamberlain also referred again to a poisoning, of the wells of international understanding by hate and fear, manufactured by Press distortion and vilification.

There are a number of questions outstanding in. Europe which, as the events in Danzig over the weekend again illustrated, can be dangerous to peace or can be rendered relatively harmless, according as they are magnified into trials of strength or kept in perspective and handled with tact and responsibility. It is felt in London that it would be very unfortunate if, whenever the international difficulty is overcome by self-control and a spirit of compromise, to which both sides must obviously have made some contribution, it must needs be represented as a concession by or defeat for one or the other side so that what is a victory for reason is debased into a victory for this or that Government or country.