GROWING ANXIETY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 63, 12 September 1938, Page 9

GROWING ANXIETY

DANGER OF WAR

OFFICIALDOM NOT UNDULY PESSIMISTIC

MUCH MAY TURN ON HERR HITLER'S SPEECH

(British Official Wireless.) (Received September 12, 11.40 a.m.) , EUGBY, September 11. The close contact which the Prime Minister, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, is maintaining- with the Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax, and other leading Ministers is a measure of the deep preoccupation which the situation of danger and suspense in Central Europe is causing in Britain, as well as of the Ministers' recognition of the growing feeling of anxiety in the country at a situation out of which war might arise. While thus recognising the seriousness of the position, the view taken in official quarters is not unduly pessimistic. Herr Hitler's speech tomorrow night is awaited in London with a certain amount of anxiety, in view of how much is believed to turn upon it. But it is not forgotten that Herr Hitler has repeatedly expressed a desire for peace, and in all responsible quarters here there is every disposition to assume that he is sincere. There is no doubt in Britain's mind that any attempt to use force to solve the problem, after the measure of conciliation shown by Czechoslovakia, would incur universal condemnation throughout the world. Even now further setbacks may be met and an" apparent deadlock reached again, but while the Runciman mission remains in Prague the possibility of mediation is not exhausted, and in Britain's opinion there is no reason why the search for an agreed settlement should be abandoned.