SPIRIT OF GERMANY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 99, 29 April 1933, Page 9

SPIRIT OF GERMANY.

Disarmed State Only, Security

Against War

VISCOUNT GREY'S CANDOUR,

(British Official Wireless.) (Received 12.30 p.m.) RUGBY, April 28. Viscount Grey, who was Foreign Secretary in 1914, reviewed some current world problems when addressing the delegates after his reelection as president of the Liberal Council. He expressed warm approval of the step taken by the Prime Minister in accepting President Roosevelt's invitation.

said he was convinced that cooperation with the United States- was ono of the most important factors in "pulling the world round." The meeting between Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. MacDonald had been a meeting between two men of the utmost good will, who had a real desire to see the world relieved of its present difficulties.

Referring to Germany, he said that ho could not lielp feeling very depressed at what had happened there lately. "What would anyone feel if, at this moment, Germany was as powerfully armed as in 1914?" he asked. "The peace of Europe would be regarded as most insecure. "The great security of peace now is that Germany is not armed and not in a position to go to war. The whole trend of her policy and the trend of her mentality has been to shock British opinion, which, after the war, was undoubtedly in many .ways sympathetic with Germany. Attack on Jews Deprecated. "We felt that Germany, though defeated, was a great nation, great in sciencc and music, and some of the great men wo honoured were not only Germans but also Jews. Suddenly there comes this attack on the Jews, showing that Germany was not prepared to give them even tolerance.

"Our efforts after the war tended to create a peaceful feeling, but to-day the situation has tremendously disappointed public feeling here. A few months ago a speech such as that which Sir Austen Chamberlain made in the House of Commons recently would not have commanded the universal assent it did command, but I must associate myself with what ho said, and what the whole of the House of Commons endorsed.

"Wo cannot make concessions or hold out the hand of peace continually unless that gesture is to be reciprocated. The present moment is not one at which we can go on with the same policy we would have pursued in the case of Herr Strcsemann and Dr. Bruening. We want peace, but it seems that we have come to the point when the British Government must rely upon the League of Nations in standing by public covenants and treaties."