“WAR INEVITABLE”

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20742, 28 February 1939, Page 9

“WAR INEVITABLE”

COUPLE OF MONTHS OFF MR de la MARE’S PROPHECY DEMOCRACIES v. DICTATORSHIPS “I think war is inevitable and that in a couple of months we shall he in it,” remarked Mr F. A. de la Mare, speaking at the W.E.A. meeting in Hamilton last evening. “I think that, psychologically speaking, dictators find it extraordinarily dilficult to back down,” the speaker went on. "Mussolini and Hitler have nailed their colours to the mast in regard to Tunisia and the former German colonies and I do not think they will go back.” While he was of the opinion that Mr Neville Chamberlain had been honest in his intentions and efforts, Mr de la Mare suggested that lie had fallen heir to a policy of muddling—muddling without muddling through. In fact, the British Government's policy for the past seven years had been a disgrace to diplomacy. Resistance Stiffening Regarding the latest demands of Italy and Germany, however, he did not think that France and Britain would climb down.. Recent policy statements by leaders of the democracies had shown a marked stiffening of resistance and the speaker was of the opinion that the United States had gone as far as the President could take that country in support of British policy. “Britain and France,” remarked Mr de la Mare, “are now faced with the prospect, not of giving away someone else's property but of giving away their own.” Criticising the “peace at any price 1 ' policy, he contended thit there were greater evils than war facing the world. “We sentenced thousands of people to spoliation and death in Czechoslovakia to save London from bombing,” he concluded, “and I Uiink what we have to do now is to mako up our minds that there are worse things than war. War is better than peace if peace means the extension of existing despotisms."