WAR POLICY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 March 1940, Page 6

WAR POLICY

MR CHAMBERLAIN REPLIES TO CRITICS

AVOIDANCE OF UNCERTAIN ADVENTURES.

REFERENCE TO MEETING OF DICTATORS.

(Received This Day. 11.50 a.m.) f (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY March 19.

“The lime and place for us to strike must be decided on with the most expert advice we can command.” said the Prime Minister (Mr N. Chamberlain) concluding' the statement with which he opened the House of Commons debate this afternoon.

Mr Chamberlain was answering those, who, he said, would urge a more vigorous policy, "who say that by some unexplained, imaginative stroke of daring, we ought, as they say. to wrest to ourselves the initiative.” He added: “With the responsibility resting on the shoulders of the Government, we cannot be hustled into adventures which appear to us to present little chance of success, much chance of danger and perhaps disaster.” He had previously referred to the visit by Mr Sumner Welles and to the Hitler-Mussolini meeting yesterday. He said he was confident Mr Welles was able to get an accurate view of the sentiments of all sections of the community and to see for himself the unity of purpose with which the British people were inspired. Of the dictators' meeting, Mr Chamberlain observed: “Some have thought it was for the purpose of elaborating new peace proposals. I do not know whether that is true or not. For aught I know, those two gentlemen spent their time discussing the conditions under which an Italian ship was destroyed yesterday by a German mine, with loss of Italian life.” Then, after a brief pause, he declared with vigour: “Whatever may be the outcome, we are ready to meet it. We are not likely to be diverted from the purpose for which we entered this war.” The House greeted this declaration with loud and prolonged cheers, which were renewed when Mr Chamberlain went on to welcome President Roosevelt's recent address on the moral basis of peace and to add: "It is to attain just such an aim that we have taken up arms. We intend to fight until it has been secured.” Mr Chamberlain said the Scapa Flow raid was a failure. "I have been rather surprised,” he added, “at the importance which has been attached to a very unimportant affair. No capital ship was damaged in any way whatsoever. One hundred and twenty-one high explosive and 500 incendiary bombs were dropped over a hundred square miles of the Orkneys and the mainland. The German excuse for bombing civilians was that they were attacking military objectives. The House of Commons will know the facts. Whatever the Germans' intentions, responsibility for the consequences must rest upon the authors.”