TENSE INTEREST.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 58, 9 March 1936, Page 7

TENSE INTEREST.

BRITISH OUTLOOK.

Confidence in Germany Has Been Shaken. OBLIGATIONS REFUTED. British Official Wireless. (Received 2 p.m.) RUGBY, March 8. Intense public interest, not untinged with anxiety, has been aroused by the German Rhineland action. It is recognised that Parliament will expect the earliest possible statement i'rom the Government on the subject. This "will be made to-morrow in the House of Commons by Mr. Anthony Eden, who will have had an opportunity of full consultation with his Ministerial colleagues. Meanwhile, Mr. Eden has been kept closely informed regarding the trend of opinion in the Governments of other Powers signatory to the Locarno Treaty, and in particular with the views of the French Government. Newspapers, discussing Germany's reoccupation and the terms of the memorandum issued by Herr Hitler, emphasise that unilateral denunciation of treaties is, on the face of it, a precarious basis upon which to construct a new peace effort. They agree, however, that tlie memorandum must be patiently and carefully examined by the Governments to which it is addressed. Mailed Fist and Olive Branch. A leading article in the "Sunday Observer" says that Herr Hitler has raised the mailed fist of one hand and offered an olive branch with the other. While his troops marched into the Rhine zone he outlined comprehensive proposals for the peace of Europe. "The Fuehrer thus gives unilateral notice that the entire territory of Germany will henceforth be subject to unfettered control of the German Government, What he said yesterday is bound at once to become the focus of diplomatic activity. "Brilliant and timely as are the German proposals, they must be considered with sober realism as well as with deep good will. This time Germany repudiates a treaty she freely signed and recently reaffirmed. No longer does she argue that an imposed treaty can- j not bind her. "She does not refer the Locarno Treaty j to arbitration. She rejects her own signature. We hope and believe that in elucidations in the next few days both the Russian and French misgivings will be fairly met in Berlin. If that be so Herr Hitler's proposals will prove to have performed a valuable service, but this must be Germany's last promise at all costs to be kept." Test of Confidence in Nazis. The "Sunday Times" says the appeal by Herr Hitler to an accomplished fact is not made for the first time. It recalls that the same methbd was practised when conscription was restored, when the ban on heavy artillery was transgressed, when German forces were re-equipped with fighting aeroplanes and submarines. In all these steps he successfully defied a Europe too much divided and distracted to enforce its right. He will succeed this time again. "The value of the whole system proposed by Herr Hitler in his memorandum depends on the confidence which other Powers can feel in the keeping of German engagements. To this confidence the present action has dealt a severe blow. "We do not say it is necessarily a fatal one. The point will be dispassionately weighed but on the balance it is difficult not to think that in Europe's dangerous drift since 1932 yesterday's events mark a most grave, a most alarming and perhaps an irrevocable stage."