REPLY TO THE CRITICS

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 261, 2 August 1939, Page 9

REPLY TO THE CRITICS

Declaration By Prime Minister OBSTACLES IN THE MOSCOW TALKS Persistent Diplomatic Efforts (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, July 31. The Prime Minister, Mr. Chamberlain. opening his statement in reply to criticism in the foreign affairs debate in the House of Commons, was received with Ministerial cheers. Answering previous speakers, Mr. Chamberlain said that anything more agreeable to Britain’s potential enemies than the suggestion that the Prime Minister was weaker than the Foreign Secretary in his determination in carrying out the policy which the Foreign Secretary had announced on behalf of the Government he could not imagine. “I am asked what have we done since March to build up the peace front,” he continued. “I should scarcely have thought it necessary to ask that question when the results are apparent on every side. The House is well aware that we have made good use of our time and that our defences are indeed of a formidable character.” Continuing, Mr. Chamberlain said: “Of course there is no secret about the fact that the Soviet, Britain and France combined have not hitherto been able to agree upon a definition satisfactory to ail parties of the term ‘indirect aggression,’ although all three of us realize that indirect aggression may be just as dangerous as direct aggression and all three of us desire to find a satisfactory method of combining against it. "But the same time we are extremely anxious not even to appear to be desirous of encroaching upon the. independence of other States, and if we have not. agreed so far with the Soviet on a definition of indirect aggression it is -because the formula which the Soviet favoured appeared to us to carry that precise signification.” History's Comparison. Mr. Chamberlain then recalled., the fact that the Anglo-Japanese alliance took six months to negotiate, the Anglo-French Entente of 1901 took nine months, the Anglo-Russian Entente in 1907 15 months, ami the negotiations which led up to the Treaty of Locarno eight months before they arrived at a conclusion. “It would have been possible, perhaps, to have made a provisional agreement at au early date with the Soviet, deferring to a later period the conclusion of a detailed treaty,” he said. “It is the course which we pursued with Poland and Turkey, and the French Government would have been quite ready to follow that course in this case, but the Soviet thought otherwise. “The Soviet preferred to sign nothing and to initial nothing till we got a complete agreement, and as a result we were not able to present the world, as I would have liked to do, with even a provisional agreement at an earlier stage.” Almost Without Precedent. “The announcement that I made today regarding the military mission to Moscow shows that we have, done something that must be almost without precedent. M. Molotov, in the course of conversations expressed the view that if we once began these military conversations, to which he attached very great importance, political difficulties should uot prove insuperable.

“It is that expression of view which weighed with us in taking this very unusual decision, and it certainly is the sincere hope of France and ourselves that these anticipations of M. Molotov will be realized and that we shall find it possible to agree not only in substance but also in form upon the remaining political differences.” The Foreign Under-Secretary. Mr. Butler, winding up the debate, said that Britain must be acknowledged as the leader and organizer of the peace front. She had had considerable success in her determined diplomatic efforts. “The main reason for the delay in the Russian negotiations,” he said, “is our refusal to encroach on the independence of the Baltic States. The achievements of tlie last few months and the growing strength of Britain enable us to face the summer ready for anything.”