"SOME CERTAINTY" NEEDED

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 200, 25 August 1939, Page 6

"SOME CERTAINTY" NEEDED

The present crisis over Poland is markedly different in one respect from the crisis over Czechoslovakia a year ago. Then, there was much diplomatic negotiation and public discussion about the rights and wrongs of the Sudeten minority. The belief remained in some minds, including Mr. Chamberlain's, that if concessions of a kind reasonable in normal circumstances were made to Germany she could and would be appeased. No one thinks so now. As to the rights and wrongs of the German case against Poland few people are concerned, because they know or feel that the real issue is different and deeper. It is Poland to-day, but it might have been Hungary, or ! Rumania; it may be either or both of those countries to-morrow. That belief is necessary to explain both Britain's unconditional guarantee to Poland and /Rumania, and the almost unprecedented unity of British peoples to-day. If the relations of Britain and Germany are to improve, said Lord Halifax in his broadcast to the world, "there must be some certainty about the future of Europe. Therefore we feel obliged to resist an attempt to alter the map of Europe by force." The Pope, in his nobly simple appeal, said: "The whole world want* peace, bread and work, not steel and war." President Roosevelt, in the 'message jrhieh he so significantly addressed to Italy, andTt® Italy alone, also looked, to the future. The alternative to recognising the idea of the independence of all nation 8 * he said, is efforts by the strong to dominate the wea&Vwhieh will lead "not only to war but to long futureyears of oppression on the part of the viator and to rebellion on the part of the vanquished." The people, these leaders are, joying, Want not merely security but, the unquestioned assurance of security.. They want to see this crisis surmounted, peacefully," butO-equally they want an end to these recurring crises, the fear of and preparations for which ultimately will impoverish all nations alike.