ATTITUDE TO MR CHAMBERLAIN

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22676, 3 April 1939, Page 8

ATTITUDE TO MR CHAMBERLAIN

New Zealand And England

DISCUSSION BY VISITOR

“I have found people a bit hard On Mr Chamberlain here. The majority of people in England approve of the policy he has followed,” Mr W. E, Allerton, a. retired businessman of Liverpool, a passenger on the Dominion Monarch, told a reporter of “The Press”” last night. He is a brother of the Rev. A. R. Allerton, of Auckland, who forwarded to him in England copies of statements he had made in articles, quoted in the newspapers, attacking the policy of Mr Chamberlain.

' “I do not want to enter into a controversy with my brother,” said Mr Allerton, “but I told him jokingly that I would let people know that other, members of the family held different views. ■

“I found that people were critical of Mr Chamberlain in New Zealand. What do you think the general attitude here?” Mr- Allerton asked his interviewer. “It is difficult to assess the general attitude. People express-views both for Mr Chamberlain and against him,” he was told. The Alternative? - “But his opponents have not put forward an alternative said Mr Allerton. “The only logical alternative to what Mr Chamberlain did in the crisis last year, was to involve Britain in a war for which she was not prepared. “The view of the majority of people in England is that in showing, the restraint that he did Mr Chamberlain handled a difficult situation very ably.” He was asked whether he thought that Mr Chamberlain, whom he had considered to have handled the situation last September very well, toas still showing the same ability in the present situation.

“It is very difficult to say anything at present because we do not know yet what the attitude of Hitler is. I have not heard what he said in his speech. Perhaps you could tell me something about it.” He was told that the reporter was not fully acquainted at that stage with the cabled reports of the speech, but that Hitler had said, referring to Czechoslovakia: “We have employed the old' German right to annex her.” Mr Allerton smiled at this, and said that it, would be interesting to read the full report of the speech. “Precipitate a World War” “But there is definitely a very strong feeling in favour of Mr Chamberlain in England, where it is felt that all he could have done if he had not followed the policy that he did. was to precipitate a world war, in which England was not prepared to take part,” he said. Mr Allerton, while in New Zealand, is mainly interested in ascertaining the interest in boxing, which he does not think seems to be very great. He has an open letter of introduction from Mr Johnnie Best, the famous English boxing promoter, of Liverpool.