British Guarantees

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 170, 15 April 1939, Page 13

British Guarantees

Sir,—What is needed to deter Hitler from making a Polish coup—as successful as his former coups, in the Rhineland, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Memel—must be something more definite and categorical and less ambiguous and equivocal than any vague guarantee of Polish “independence.” The British Government guarantee should promise British assistance to Poland should Germany make any attempt : 1. To occupy or seize from outside any territory 'belonging to Poland or thq Free City of Danzig. 2. To threaten or browheat Poland into making territorial concessions or transference. 3. To organize a Nazi revolt inside Poland or Danzig. The German technique for land grabbing has been repeated so often that even school children now are familiar with it. It consists of 'these steps:—l. German propaganda by Press and radio against “cruelty and injustice to Germans” within the coveted territory. 2. “Clashes” and “incidents” are organized by Nazi nests within the coveted territory. 3. An appeal is made to Hitler to come and help “tortured Germans “abominably treated by the savage population” of the coveted territories. 4. Hitler accepts the invitation to intervene “for the sake of peace and justice.” 5. German troops march into the coveted territories, over whose towns German bombing planes manoeuvre. 6. Germany annexes the coveted territories. 7. Former political opponents (who prefer democracy to Nazism, ami who have not escaped from the now annexed territories) “disappear” or die in prisons or concentration camps. Mr. Chamberlain’s careful and cautious promise of armed British help to Poland if Polish “independence” is threatened by Germany, sounds familiar, and as being a repetition of former somewhat similar vague assurances given by British Governments. The British radio today suggests that a British guarantee of Rumanian “independence” is about to be accepted by King Carol. No mention is made of Russian or French participation in this guarantee. Does this mean that if Rumanian territory is violated by Germany, Britain will declare war on Germany? It does not say so. It is obvious that for Britain to send a fleet to Rumania’s aid, through the Mediterranean and Dardanelles must be an extremely hazardous exploit. If war comes, the democracies should at once state that peace can at any time be arranged on a basis of an entirely independent Bohemia and Slovakia, and independent democracies in Austria and Spain, should plebiscites of those countries so desire.—l am, etc., W. WANSEY BAYLY. At Sea, R.M.S. Rangitane, April 3.