WILL FOR PEACE

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 70, 15 December 1939, Page 10

WILL FOR PEACE

No Relaxation By Britain

COMMENT IN LORDS

Offer To Germany Still Standing

(British Official Wireless.)

RUGBY, December 13 ;

The offer made some time ago by the Queen of the Netherlands and the King of the Belgians of thejr mediatory offices, subsequently rejected by the German Government, was recalled today in the House of Lords in a debate initiated by the Earl of Darnley, who, with the support of Lord Arnold, had consistently criticized the policy of resistance to aggression for several years on pacifist grounds. Lord Balfour summed up the attitudes of these two speakers as “war settles nothing—let’s try for compromise.” On this he commented that it was no use thinking of peace unless the enemy wanted peace.

The Bishop of Chichester said that he was not a pacifist nor au advocate of peace at any price, but he opposed the conception of a so-called fight to the finish. The guarantees the British people sought for the future, he thought, would not be obtained by a continuation of the war beyond the moment when they could be secured by negotiations. Viscount Samuel considered that if Germany was willing to withdraw from- Poland the way would be open to negotiation, but with the military position as it now was the negotiations would clearly lead nowhere. No “Fight To Finish.” The Opposition Leader, Lord Snell, intervened to express anxiety lest the observations of the Earl of Darnley and Lord Arnold should create misapprehension abroad regarding British public opinion. No peace was of the slightest value unless it was negotiated witih a Government which would keep the peace. The British people, he believed, had no desire to destroy the German nation. Their sole desire was that Germany should resume her ancient and revered place in world history. Lord Snell’s anxieties were shown to be exaggerated when the Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax, replied, for he was able to describe how T foreign representatives who came to him at the Foreign Office, told him how profoundly they were impressed by British national unity and by the evidence of the resolution of the people which they encountered in all quarters. Lord Halifax also' expressed his dislike of the phrase “fight to the finish,” which gave the impression of people fighting for the mere sake of fighting. That definitely was not the position of the British Government or the British people. “We have always been prepared to negotiate.” be said. “We were prepared before the war and we . have never closed the door to negotiations in anything wo have said or done since the war began.” Unfortunately, though Herr Hitler asserted in speeches, that he was anxious for peace, it was far from certain that he was anxious for peace on terms which would make for the peace of Europe.

Lord Halifax said that all members of the House of Lords were agreed on general principles. They all felt it was a good plan to settle by negotiation. Nobody could feel more strongly than be did the horrors and agony of war. Nobody could feel more strongly how criminal it would be to miss any real opportunity for peace. But they came to a fundamental question. They stood for the causes that had led the country into the war and if they were right it would be wrong to cease till they had done their utmost to secure those causes.

Lord Halifax concluded by recalling the British and French answers to the mediatory offer leaving the door open for negotiations, and the slamming of the door by Herr von Ribbentrop in Berlin, and expressed his view that after the German action it was a very academic question whether the offer remained open on the side of its originators—the Sovereigns of the low countries.