GERMAN DEFENCE OF ACT

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21729, 11 March 1936, Page 11

GERMAN DEFENCE OF ACT

Little Anxiety About Sanctions TREATY DENUNCIATION WILL BE UPHELD (UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT.) (Received March 10, 10.30 p.m.) LONDON, March 9. The Berlin correspondent of "The Times" says that there is probably extreme relief in official quarters that the French have not entered the Rhineland to counter the German advance. The risk was wise Germany would not have reoccupied the zone. Nevertheless, it existed in the Carman mind.

With this danger overcome, German newspapers began emphasising the concession Germcny was making by re-entrance to the League of Nations. The anxiety about whether France would propose sanctions was minimised, as the opinion was expressed that the practical people of Britain did not desire further disturbances to trade.

The Germans are orepared to uphold the legality of the denunciation of the Locarno Treaty, pointing out that M. Flandin's offer to submit the Franco-Soviet pact to The Hague Court was rejected because it involved a political question which the court was not competent to decide.

The Germans are also prepared to argue that is not guilty of aggression, as only two divisions re-entered a district formerly occupied by six army corps, and an intention to undertake hostilities was manifestly absent. However, armed police, consisting of nine battalions —almost equivalent to another division—have been absorbed into the army of occupation, which is estimated; at 40,000 to 45,000 men. • Whatever haopens at Geneva, there is no consideration of again evacuating the zone, although it is understood that the deinternationalisation of rivers will not be introduced into the present discussions.

It was learned earlier from reliable German authorities that Germany intended to break another section of the Versailles Treaty, renationalising the Rhine, Danube, Oder, Elbe, and Moselle rivers'. Germany has already informed the interested Governments that, with the resumption of the full sovereignty of German territory, she will no longer be able to acknowledge the jurisdiction of . the river commissioners. REGRET IN BRITAIN PROPOSALS VITIATED BY TREATY VIOLATION (BRITISH OFFICIAL WIBELEBB.) (Received March 10, 8.20 p.m.) ' RUGBY, Maf ch 9. British newspapers comment at some length on the Rhineland situation. Broadly stated, they consider it a matter of great misfortune that Germany should have vitiated the scheme of proposals, several of which contain much of constructive value, by a violation of a treaty which was not forced upon her, but was freely negotiated. "The Times" says: "Herr Hitler's violation of solemn treaty pledges might prove to be the longest and perhaps the most disastrous road. Britain has held France to the League Covenant and to a policy of collective action through the trying course of the Italo-Abyssinian dispute. She is in honour bound to remain true to her own pledges in full consideration of the position of France."

A firm stand for the sanctity of international obligations—the foundation of the League of Nationsneed not, it is thought in London, preclude the fullest use of diplomacy, in the weeks and months ahead, towards the end of establishing a settled peace. The "Daily Telegraph" says: "Britain in other circumstances would have welcomed unreservedly the suggestion of Germany's return to the league, but the actual circumstances are what they are—flagrant repudiation of treaties, assertion and glorification 'of overpowering military strength, and a promise of good neighbourliness (except, indeed, to Russia) within the league—with the hope that German colonial demands will be fully recognised. - New Settlement Urged "The surest means Herr Hitler could have adopted to draw France and Russia closer together was to send German troops into the Rhineland and to denounce the Locarno Pact."

The "Daily Herald," while recognising the "definite and deplorable" fact that Germany has deliberately broken, not only the dilated Treaty of Versailles but the freely negotiated Treaty of Locarno/thinks the wisdom requires that when the League Council meets it shall devote itself to the constructive task of making a ■ new, more equitable (and therefore more lasting) settlement.

The diplomatic correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian" states: —"The military significance of Herr Hitler's action lies in the enormous strategical advantage that the control of the demilitarised zone gives her against France and favours any probable plan for an advance on Paris through the Dutch province of Limbourg and through Belgium and Luxembourg. "Herr. Hitler has gone a long way towards realising what he declared in his book 'Mein Kampf was one of the chief aims of German policy—'to overthrown France.' "The French people are convinced that their continued existence depends on the attitude of Britain, which France is watching with really tragic concern."