WAR REVIEWED

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 97, 18 January 1940, Page 8

WAR REVIEWED

British Relations Abroad

PREMIER’S SURVEY

Admiration Of Courage Of

Low Countries

(British Official Wireless.)

RUGBY, January 16. The Prime Minister, Mr. Chamberlain, in a war review in the House of Commons, referred to the renewed anxiety at the weekend about German designs against Belgium and the Netherlands and the “natural wish for precautions by the two Governments,” and said, “We cannot but admire the calm and courageous attitude of the two Governments and the Belgian and Dutch peoples. “We in this country,” said Mr. Chamberlain, “hope, as do the people of every nation, that the just .and lasting peace we are seeking will not be long delayed. “On the other hand, it may well be that the war is about to enter upon a more acute phase. If that should prove to be the case we are ready for it and, in common with our Allies, we will spare no effort and no sacrifice that may be necessary to secure the victory on which we are determined.” Mr. Chamberlain referred to the heroic and successful resistance by Finland, and intimated that arrangements had been made for a supply of certain war material from Britain, adding: “I can assure the House that the amounts involved are substantial.” In Hie Far East.

The situation in the Far East continued to be dominated by the SinoJapanese hostilities, and there was no warrant for optimism regarding an early settlement. However, the British Government had welcomed the recent action by the Japanese Government in the direction of relaxing some of the restrictions which from time to time had caused difficulty and tension.

He hoped the Mediterranean area would long continue to be spared the suffering and horror of war. ‘‘Certain dislocations of normal life have been and will remain inevitable,” said the Prime Minister, “but it is the British aim, while pursuing the war with all determination, to avoid as far as is consistent with that object,, injury to the interests of neutral Powers.”

Speaking of Franco-British cooperation, Mr. Chamberlain said that in the field of supply the closest cooperation existed between the departments concerned in this country and those of France. Allies’ Unity Complete.

Machinery had been provided, among other things, for the preparation in common of programmes of imports, and thus enabled material produced in the two countries to be used to the best advantage in the prosecution of the war. As a result of the financial agreement, the unity of action of the two countries had been made complete.

“Indeed.” said Mr. Chamberlain, “it is our hope, as I have stated elsewhere, that the system of collaboration which lias been thus evolved may in time bring closer relations in the economic and financial sphere between the nations of Europe and of the world, and so facilitate the work of peaceful reconstruction to which we look forward at the successful termination of the war.” The Prime Minister also stated that under agreements signed in Paris on January 8 the British and French Governments undertook to lend Turkey £25,000,000 for armaments purchased in the United Kingdom and France, £15,000,000 in gold and £3,500,000 to liquidate arrears in Anglo-Turkish and Franco-Turkish clearings. Interest and the sinking fund would be paid in Turkish goods, particularly tobacco. The British and French Governments had also undertaken to purchase each year £2,000,000 worth of Turkish dried fruits. Land and Air Activity.

Turning to the several theatres of war, the Prime Minister said patrolling and artillery fire had continued on the Western Front, and British troops in the Maginot Line sector had taken their full share of the activities, louring the last month air activity had been hampered by the short period of daylight, and from fog and the snowcovered landing grounds. The British air forces, none the less, were continuously in action, in particular over the whole battle area of the North Sea. Every week considerable British forces had flown over the Heligoland Bight and the approaches to the Baltic in search of such units of the German fleet as might venture out to sea.