WAR SURVEY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 November 1939, Page 5

WAR SURVEY

STATEMENT BY SIR JOHN SIMON On Behalf of British Prime Minister COMMENT ON GERMAN ATTITUDE TO PEACE APPEAL THREATS TO DUTCH AND BELGIAN NEUTRALITY (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.7 a.m.) RUGBY, November 16. Sir John Simon, Chancellor of the Exchequer, on behalf of the, Premier, Mr Neville Chamberlain, whose illness though improving has kept him from the House of Commons, this week macle a statement on the progress of the war. ■ “During* the fortnight since Mr Chamberlain made his last statement to the House,” lie said, “the most notable development in international affairs has been the communication addressed by the Queen of Holland and the King of the Belgians on November 7 to the King, the President of the Erench Republic and the German Chancellor, offering their good offices in the hope of avoiding a further extension of the war. On behalf of Mr Chamberlain, on November 10, I said past experience did not. enable us to be very hopeful of a satisfactory response from the German Chancellor. The House would since have seen the reply transmitted to the Queen of the Netherlands and the King of the Belgians by the King. President Lebrun had made a similar reply on the same day—well illustrating the unity of the two Allies. Misleading references to British policy in Herr Hitler’s address at Munich on November 9, coupled with misrepresentation by German propaganda of the British and French replies as a refusal of the Dutch and Belgian peace initiative, did not indicate that the German reply was likely to open the door to a peaceful and satisfactory settlement. The? Official German News Agency had now published a statement that Herr von Ribbentrop yesterday informed the Belgian Ambassador and Netherlands Minister in Berlin, in the name of the Fuehrer, that, after the blunt rejection of the peace move by Britain and France, the German Government considered the matter closed. Members would have noticed Press reports that no formal reply to their Majesties was made by Germany. The past week had also been marked by a recurrence of rumours of German aggressive intentions against the Netherlands or Belgium. The concentration of German troops on the Dutch and Belgian frontiers and the opening of a threatening campaign in lhe German Press presented a pattern familiar to a world which had grown accustomed to seeing in such signs immediate forerunners of German invasion. Sir J. Simon said there could therefore be no surprise at the general reluctance shown throughout the world to accept at their face value pacifying statements of a purely general nature put out from Germany. On the other hand, there could be no desire anywhere, and least of all in this country, Io exaggerate the significance of these reports. On Noyember 13, the Official German News Agency had broadcast a statement that Germany intended to continue to respect the neutrality of the Netherlands and Belgium as long as Britain and France did su and as long as Belgium and the Netherlands showed themselves capable of strictly preserving that neutrality. On the same day, the Netherlands Prime Minister (Baron de Geer) broadcast a statement to the effect that his Government had no immediate reason to fear a breach of its neutrality and that precautionary measures recently taken by them had been necessary to keep pace with increased tension in Western Europe. “The relaxation in tension which has followed these statements is satisfactory to the British Government, which 1 need hardly say has every intention, in accordance with lhe consistent policy of this country, of continued respect for the neutrality of the Netherlands and Belgium,” Sir J. Simon observed. “Other developments during the past fortnight have strengthened the position of the Allies. In particular, the United States has by recent legislation restored to us the right to purchase the abaundant supplies they are able to offer ns.”