TOPICS OF THE DAY

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20990, 18 December 1939, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY

Terms of Settlement

“Sooner or later,” says the News Chronicle, “peace terms must be discussed round a table, and the whole world prays that it may be soon. But it would be worse than a blunder—it would be assumed by neutral and enemy countries alike that the Allies had thrown up the sponge—if the British Prime Minister were to say that he was prepared for a talk round the table under conditions which allowed the other side to imagine that Hitler’s terms were the basis of negotiation. Nothing but good can come of making our own aims crystal clear. We should state in detail the kind of Europe we envisage after the war, the problems which we regard as in need of settlement, and the sort of sanction which we believe will be necessary to safeguard the security of free peoples. The terms of such a statement should be of a kind to meet with the approval of the British people and of the great neutrals. They should have a powerful appeal to the German people themselves as being just and fair. When we have seen what sort of response such terms call forth it will be time to consider whether any further diplomatic step can usefully be taken.”