CONDITIONS OF PEACE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 October 1939, Page 8

CONDITIONS OF PEACE

SURVEY BY LORD HALIFAX POINTS TO BE CONSIDERED. SECURITY AND GOOD FAITH ESSENTIAL.’ (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day. 12.25 p.m.) RUGBY, October 4. The Foreign Minister (Viscount Halifax) speaking in the House of Lords, referred to rumours of German peace proposals. He said he had no intimation whether this supposition was or was not wellfounded. Still less could he anticipate the nature of the proposals. (1) The conditions under which they were offered. (2) The Government by which they were put forward. (3) The security which might be held to be attached to any agreement which might conceivably be reached. As to the conditions, it had already been indicated that proposals might be put forward under a veiled threat. There was no more perilous proceeding than to negotiate under a threat of force and certainly neither Britain nor France would be parties to that. As for the Government of Germany, he would only say that Britain had had very bitter experiences of its, character and methods, and as to its assurances Britain had seen the rulers of Germany repudiate successive international documents which they had signed, only to throw aside the principles Germany had for long years proclaimed. Assurances from the present German Government were not enough. If and when proposals were received, they would be examined with care and measured against the principles for which the Allies had taken up arms.

Lord Halifax did not rule out' a suggestion that there might be a possible and desirable opportunity for some reasoned statement of the position adopted by Britain. Britain had been ready and anxious in the past to join hands with others, including Germany, in world reconstruction. Britain had repeatedly stated her willingness to make any contribution to that end through which benefits could be brought to the peoples of all nations alike, but it would be impossible to begin unless first there was security and unless nations were released from the perpetual fear of attack by Germany and from the constant necessity of maintaining inflated armaments for their defence. Their first duty, as the British Government saw it, was to secure conditions under which the rule of violence would cease to operate and under which the pledged words of governments were worthy of honourable trust. Lord Halifax alluded to RussianTurkish relations and agreed that it would be wise to view with understanding the talks in progress between Russia and Turkey. “We certainly will always be glad,” he said, “to see friendly relations maintained between the two great neighbours, Russia and Turkey, which we believe need not in any way conflict with close relations between Britain and Turkey, or Turkey and France.”