The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1938. MUCH TO EXPLAIN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 224, 22 September 1938, Page 10

The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1938. MUCH TO EXPLAIN.

For the cause that lacks assistance. For the wrong that needs resistamea, For the future in the distant*, And the good that tee can da.

The Czechoslovak Government announces that it has been " forced under irresistible pressure by both the British and the French to accept with pain the proposals elaborated in London." What those proposals are we still do not know, but as the unofficial account of them has not been denied we must assume that they involve the handing over to Germany of those parts of Czechoslovakia which are, and have been for crnlnrirs, predominantly German. Such a s:iin!ii>n of th? problem need not be r< nrded i:s intrinsically bad; on the • nntrnry, it one could make a certain ::.-- iuupti<m. it would have much to coiiiUKiid it. If we could nsMime that (•ei'iiiiiny lias been concerned only to protect and help a strong body of German people who were deeply with their statu-, in a foreign country, then we might well hope that the "proposals" now accepted would satisfy her and so remove a dangerous irritant from the body of Europe. But the assumption mentioned cannot be made. Just as the Austrian problem only became critically dangerous because Germany willed it, so with the Sudeten German problem. Who can doubt that if Herr Hitler's speech at Nuremberg had- been different in tone, and that if the German actions before and since had not been intmiidatory, the peaceful negotiations under the mediation of Lord Runciman would not have been cut short by the virtual rebellion of the Sudetensf Who can doubt now that German actions and words were part of a design which was to secure possession of a new frontier of enormous strategic valuef The design was skilfully made, and now it appears that it has been virtually accomplished, not by invasion of Czechoslovakia, but. through the agency of Britain and France.

Just what occurred to cause the British and French Governments, particularly the French, to change their course so suddenly is still not clear. The inference is being drawn that they simply surrendered to a threat of war by Germany. That, we hope, ia a too simple explanation, though onfortuaataly it ia warranted by the. facts so far arailable. But the Anglo-French case has still to he heard. Mr. Chamberlain has ■till, to, moejt the House of Commons and 4 i£.,.hae apparently ? done; something which haa undoubtedly—pending his explanation—lowered British prestige throughout the world- He haa also to explain in what way these "proposals," forced upon the Caeehs, promote the cause of European " appeasement," and how, above all, they promote the interests of Britain.