THE WAR BLUFF.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 177, 29 July 1939, Page 8

THE WAR BLUFF.

DANGER OF CONCESSIONS. (To the Editor.) Each time Britain has backed down before the dictators who, step by step, are stealing the territories of other peoples, the false cry has been raised that if Britain had not backed down the alternative would have been -war. That is the bluff that Italy and Germany has again and again put over the Chamberlain Government. If Britain and Franco, with the then available support of Russia, had stood firm over Manchuria, Abyssinia, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Albania. Memel, and now Japan, the other side would most certainly have backed down. But they bluffed the democracies again and again. Had the Chamberlain Government stood firm against Japan now, the latter would have backed down. How is it that at every international poker game it is always our side that runs away? Each retreat only makes the dictator nations more arrogant. more self-confident, more insatiable in their demands, and more convinced that they have only to shake their sabre to send us scuttling like rabbits to our holes. Further. the enormous territorial gains, increase in man-power, material, communications, minerals and in economic strength that each successive raid gives to them will soon make these powers so strong that they can take any country they want, and they want the world. They wish nothing better than (hat the strongest nations shall stand by and "appease." by tlie surrender of the smaller nations, then the middle-sized ones, and then, when our turn comes, a righteous retribution will fall upon us for our abandonment of the weak. Britain wil] default to Poland, Daiuir, Rumania, Turkey, and later to Holland, Belgium, Denmark and the rest of Europe, ateo if there is any validity in the statement that '•'the alternative will be war." A firm stand at the outset would have stopped this landslide. Is there no humiliation too great for us to swallow? J. CAUGHLEY. Haviiii read with alarm the adverse views of certain M.P.'s in your issue of the 28th inst.. I beg to make my protest against such. Purely the speakers are aware of the fact that British statesmen are, at once, "the envy and despair" of every other Power. Mr. Chamberlain will go down in history as the greatest peace-maker of all time. Who in New Zealand at the present time dare criticise him? Especially at a time when there should be absolute unity between Britain and her Dominions. Australia and Canada remain loyal to Britain; surely it is not too much for New Zealand to do the same. Also, the suggestion that Britain's policy was dictated by capitalistic interest is a most unwarranted assertion. Britain's most dangerous enemies are the enemies behind the lines. It was the same during the Great War. VERITAS.