TOPICS OF THE DAY

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20742, 28 February 1939, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY

Democracies' Warning “Most Englishmen would agree with the Prime Minister,” comments the Birmingham Post, “that it is imperative in world interests, in the interests of our world civilisation, that civilised Powers should agree on a world peace system. Most Englishmen are hoping with the Prime Minister that concessions made at Munich guarantee a real world ‘appeasement.’ That is why, party politics apart, Mr Chamberlain got his majority. But many Englishmen feel, irrespective of party, that it is about time the totalitarian States made some response to the concessions of the democracies. And Englishmen who think along those lines will welcome the Prime Minister’s warning to Germany and Italy that, if it takes two to make a quarrel, it takes two or three to make an agreement. The biggest obstacle the Prime Minister’s ‘appeasement’ policy has met has been the disposition of Germany first and of Italy later to regard it as merely a surrender policy. The dictatorships may interpret concessions made for the sake of peape as surrenders made for fear of war. The Prime Minister’s speech—perhaps its strongest point—was a warning that, in the long run the democracies arc not afraid of war.”