GAVE ORDERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 278, 24 November 1938, Page 5

GAVE ORDERS.

TO HERR HITLER. i DID NOT CLIMB DOWN. BRITISH PREMIER UPHELD. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day. To the Very Rev. Dr. Dugald Macfarlane, recently Moderator of the Church of Scotland, the common idea that the British Prime Minister, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, "climbed down" to Herr Hitler, in the recent crisis over Czechoslovakia is quite incomprehensible. Dr. Macfarlane was Moderator of the Church of Scotland up to May last, when lie left on a world tour. The impression that Mr. Chamberlain had humbled himself to Hitler was, he found, widespread in the Dominion, but it was, in his opinion, quite a wrong one. In England. Dr. Macfarlane said, it was realised that Hitler had taken orders from Mr. Chamberlain, and it

was the first time that Hitler had taken an order from anyone since he gained power. Mr. Chamberlain had told Hitler, "You must meet me and discuss this question," and Hitler had obeyed. In praise of New Zealand, Dr. Macfarlane said that there was a freshness and luxuriance of growth here and an atmosphere of well-being and prosperity that Great Britain could not show. Attempts were Iwing made to repopulate the Highlands, he remarked, but j>eople would not go back to the poverty of farm life in that hard climate, and the only hope there was in the establishment of small industrial communities. Declining to comment on the discussion on the subject of dancing at the recent General Assembly in Dunedin. when a vote against dancing was carried by a majority of one. Dr. Macfarlane said that the question was one for New Zealand Presbyterian's to decide amongst themselves. The Scottish Church had never legislated on the question, lie said; it was left solely to the individual conscience. Asked what was the present attitude of the British people towards the Duke of Windsor, Dr. Macfarlane drew himself up to his full six feet, and possibly an inch or so more. •'He is no longer remembered," said Dr. Macfarlane hoarsely.