FOREIGN PRESS DINNER SENSATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 295, 14 December 1938, Page 11

FOREIGN PRESS DINNER SENSATION.

GERMANS PIQUED.

Take Offence at Criticism By Chamberlain.

ABSENT PROM FUNCTION,

United Press Association.-Copyright.

(Received 12.30 p.m.)

LOXDOX", December 13,

A sensation was caused bv the last :X ,e n fUSa k°V he Amtt ador, Dr. Dirksen, and German journalists to attend the Foreign Press Association jubilee dinner because they objected to Mr. Chamberlain s reference to the German Press showing no scruples to use vituperation toward Earl Baldwin. lhe >peech was issued in advance. There was comment on the fact that diplomatic action Mas taken on the nutter before delivery of the speech. The journalists' decision not to attend was conveyed to the committee 4., minutes before the dinner.

There was no mes«a»e from the Embassy, but tl*- invited officials, including Dr. Gottfried Aschmauii. chief of the German Foreign Office Press Bureau, who came to London to attend the dinner and to report to Herr Hitler, were absent.

Loud and long applause greeted the criticised passage. Mr. Chamberlain slightly altered the text in reference to Larl Baldwin.

Mr. Chamberlain described how lie had faced a situation in which British relations with Italy and Germany were rapidly deteriorating, and he had reached the conclusion that the onlv alternatives were to make up our minds that war was inevitable and prepare for it, or make a prolonged effort to eradicate possible causes of war. and to try out personal contact while pursuing rearmament for defence.

He believed that those who were of the opinion that the country should hare taken the first course were a small minority. He chose the second course. The goal was not only peace but confidence that peace could be maintained. "And as long as I am where I am IH never leave off trying," he declared.

The Prime Minister proceeded to give instances of the Government's accomplishments, and mentioned the agreements with Eire and Italy, and the Munich agreement, the latter followed by the declaration N by Britain and Germany, and also the trade agreement between Britain and America. All were concluded within 12 .months.

Mr v Chamberlain said: "I much deplore the recent attitude of the German Press, which, in one case, did not scruple to pour vituperation against our most respected statesman, himself only recently Prime Minister, and in few cases has shown much desire to understand our viewpoint." Nevertheless, he was convinced that the British and German peoples wished never again to go to war with one another. Alluding to his forthcoming visit to Signor Mussolini, he said he presumed that some people would again speculate as to who was the winner or the loser, but that was not the spirit in which he and Viscount Halifax were making the journey to Rome.

Mr. Chamberlain denied the suggestion that because he advocated an understanding with the dictators that he favoured the Xazi or the Fascist system. "History teaches," he said, "that no form of Government ever remains the same. Change may come by slow degrees, or suddenly like an explosion, but change from one form to another is evitable.

"It would seem to follow, therefore, that we should be careful not to shut ourselves from contact with any country on account of a system, which, in the course of time, may well undergo such modifications as to render it very different from what it is to-day.''

Alluding to British rearmament, Mr. Chamberlain said it was the British people's hope that these armaments might never be required. Certainly they would not be required for aggressive purposes, but none would welcome more gladly than he a limitation or reduction of armaments by national agreement.

"I have recently sustained a certain shock," he said, "on seeing myself described as 'that «ld man,' but in one respect perhaps the passage of the years has left its mark—in a recognition of the futility of ambition if ambition leads to a desire for domination. For again history teaches that attempts at dominion are never long successful, and have never added to the happiness of the nations which attempted it. "Past experience has shown that there is an innate resistant force, arising from fear of loss of liberty combined with the ever-present P" 8910n m national self-expression which makes domination difficult and precanous lt is the absence of peace of mind which to day weighs upon the world, and by destroying confidence prevents it from reaping the material advantages of human progress." He concluded by appealing to the nations, through the Press, to realise that happiness *as only we ceased seeking for points of differ-; ence and searched instead for points of agreement. He described Britain a. relations with France as so close as to —»beyond a mere legal obligation, "■•'c they were founded on identity ofj V : csts.