STRAIGHT TALK TO GERMANY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 60, 12 March 1938, Page 9

STRAIGHT TALK TO GERMANY.

BRITISH MINISTERS. Effort to Prevent Extension Of Repercussions. DANGERS SEEN. United Press Association.—Copyright. (Received 12 noon.) LONDON, March 11. The Australian Associated Press says there are indications that Britain will not become embroiled in the Austrian crisis. Every effort is being made from Downing Street to prevent an extension of the repercussions. Ministers were in constant consultation ,all day, and they are standing by for the week-end. The situation as Downing Street sees it is that, even with forcible German action, how can the other Powers forcibly retaliate. The British public at the moment would certainly not tolerate intervention, and France is without a Government. Italy, if she adheres to the Rome-Berlin axis, would seem to be precluded.

Nevertheless, the peril, as the British Government sees it, is that Germany's action may precipitate moves farther afield. The immediate danger is that German mobilisation in Bavaria may provoke Czechoslovakia, whose intervention would inevitably embroil France if she adhered to the Frcnch-Czecho Treaty. It is rarely that such strong words are used by one Government to another as the Prime Minister, Mr. Chamberlain, and the Foreign Secretary, Viscount Halifax, used to Herr von Ribbentrop, the German Ambassador, this afternoon. Britain has been thrown back to the position of 1936 when Earl Baldwin, in the House of Commons, made his momentous utterance: "Our frontier is on the Rhine." Germany's Methods Criticised. Mr. Chamberlain and Lord Halifax discussed the latest news from Austria with Herr von Ribbentrop. They expressed Britain's grave concern at the methods adopted by Germany, and the possible repercussions and their effect on British-German relations. The Austrian Ambassador to Britain, Baron Franckenstein, spent 40 minutes at the Foreign Office. It is understood that Whitehall has received reports of movements of troops in Bavaria. Reuter's Vienna correspondent states the ultimatum was presented to Dr. Sehuschnigg by Gauleiter Burckel, the Nazi Provincial Governor, who headed the delegation.