"DOUBLY DAMNED"

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 145, 16 December 1935, Page 11

"DOUBLY DAMNED"

VIEWS ON PEOPOSALS

PRESS COMMENTS

(British Official Wireless.) • (Received December 16, -i; p.m.) KUGBY, December 15. The publication of the terms of the Paris proposals advanced as a basis for negotiations to end the war in Abyssinia, and the reply of the Ethiopian Government, are the subjects of leading articles in all the newspapers. With regard to the variation of the official text from the previous reports the general feeling seems to be, in the words of "The Times," that "the full text of the Paris proposals will hardly dispel the anxiety aroused by the forecasts when they first made their appearance in the French newspapers." The "Daily Herald" says: "Details are irrelevant. Tne proposals are damned not in their details but by their principles." The comment of the majority of the papers is highly critical, but the "Daily Mail" and the "Daily Express," which have consistently opposed the Government's policy ■of standing by League obligations in this dispute, now support the proposals, which they treat as a sensible escape from the dangers of League action. The "Morning Post" also inclines to regard the proposals as a realist solution resulting from the choice by the Government of the path of conciliation, and this' paper has a sharp rejoinder to certain foreign critics who, it says, "when they thought Great Britain was taking a stronge line accused her of exploiting the League for Imperial ends. ' Now that she takes the other line they accuse her of betraying the League to a shameful surrender." The Liberal "News-Chroncile" writes: "In view of the attitude so bravely taken up by the Government, both in Geneva and in this country, during the election, it is extremely

difficult to discover what motives have led the British Foreign Secretary and the British Government to give the plan any sort of endorsement." The country, which has the greatest faith in Mr. Baldwin, will anxiously await further enlightenment, and the only fair thing to do is to suspend final judgment till the Prime Minister explains what he had in mind the other day in the House of Commons when he said criticism and opposition would cease if he were free to speak. Discussing possible explanations of the Government's attitude, the "Daily Telegraph" considers that while these conjectures might justify refusal to extend sanctions any further, they do not make clear why it was thought necessary to put forward peace terms on the present lines. The "Manchester Guardian" considers the Abyssinian reply adroit, and noting that the Emperor puts himself in ttie position of a belligerent refusing to negotiate and transferring the burden of conciliation to the League, it adds "from which it should never have been taken."