Rustle Of ‘Ghosts’

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31736, 20 July 1968, Page 13

Rustle Of ‘Ghosts’

(N.Z P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, July 19. The British Foreign Secretary (Mr Michael Stewart) has called on Russia to keep its hands off Czechoslovakia.

Opening a House of Commons debate on foreign policy, Mr Stewart told the House: “It is not for us to order the internal affairs of Czechoslovakia—not for us or for anyone else except the people of Czechoslovakia.” Members of the House with long memories seemed to detect a rustle of ghosts when the former Prime Minister, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, intervened to support Mr Stewart’s call.

“Any attempt to dragoon the Czechoslovaks into submission, or to resurrect force in any part of Europe, would set back for generations the prospect of really serious constructive co-existence, and do lasting damage to peace,” Sir Alec Douglas-Home said.

It was in the House 30 years ago almost to the month that the then Prime Minister, Mr Neville Chamberlain, told of his deal with Adolf Hitler at Munich, which sealed the fate of pre-war Czechoslovakia.

Sir Alec Douglas-Home was Mr Chamberlain’s Parliamentary Secretary at the time and flew with him to sign the pact with Hitler in Munich.

“This is something extremely serious and dangerous,” Sir Alec Douglas-Home said today of the new threat to Czechoslovakia. “It is to be hoped profoundly that the Soviet Union will accept the counsels of the nations which must be pouring in on her to show restraint.”