HISTORIC HOURS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 99, 24 October 1938, Page 11

HISTORIC HOURS

THE BID FOR PEACE

SCENE IN THE HOUSE

PRELUDE TO MUNICH

(By Air Mail, from "The Post's" London Representative.) LONDON, September 29. -People who were so fortunate as to be in the House of Commons yesterday to hear Mr. Neville Chamberlain's explanatory speech must have registered impressions so stirring and dramatic that they can hardly expect ever to experience a duplication of those sensations. The Prime Minister revealed to a deeply-moved assembly the intensely gripping story of. his two visits to Herr Hitler and his last-min-ute appeal to the German Chancellor not to risk a world war for the sake of a few days' delay. Before Mr. Chamberlain had finished there occurred the greatest dramatic incident of all—the arrival of Herr Hitler's reply. '

Mr. Chamberlain's efforts to preserve the peace have assumed, as has truly been said, heroic proportions. His account of his visits to Berchtesgaden and Bad Godesberg could hardly have failed to convince even the few remaining sceptics of the absolute necessity and real value of his intervention.

When Herr Hitler's message was read, all Parliamentary precedents were swept away in' a frenzy of pentup emotions. Ambassadors stood in their places and clapped hands. Strangers in the thronged public galleries leapt up waving handkerchiefs, cheering wildly. Attendants, with traditions of centuries to maintain, made no effort to intervene. Members were caught in the same wave of fervour, and flourished order papers and hats or grasped each other's hands with, exultation.

Queen Mary was deeply stirred and so was the Duchess of Kent. The Duke of Kent was present, and Earl Baldwin made his first appearance in the Peers' Gallery in the Commons. RELAY TO LORDS LIBRARY. An unusual feature was a microphone on a pile of books close t-> the Government dispatch box. This is the first time a microphone has ever been used in the House of Commons. Its purpose was to relay the Prime Minister's speech to the library of tne House of Lords, where peers who could not find room in their own gallery were able to listen. .

The public are reminded by "Petervborough,"' of the "Daily Telegraph," that no member of the Royal family is more closely affected personally by the crisis than the Duchess of Kent. Her elder sister, Countess ToerringJettenbach'i is living with her husband at Jettenbach, within a few miles of the German-Czech frontier. Jettenbach has belonged to. the Toerrings for 800, years;. Another of the Duchess of j Kent's relatives wha> would be involved in the event of general war is her 25-year-old cousin, Prince Timouraz j Bogratzion, a lieutenant-instructor in Yugoslavia's crack Royal Guards. PREMIER'S CALM OPENING. When the Prime Minister arrived in the,. Chamber, making his way slowly past the Speaker's Chair, all hisj supporters sprang up and cheered. He took his place and then came forward to the table. He set in order a thick mass of notes on the bok before him and began to speak with his wonted .calm. He took the familiar easy poses, says the "Daily Telegraph" representative who was present, leaning on the box, drawing back arms akimbo, he used the little mannerisms of gesture, one expository hand, or finger tips together in front of him which, always seem to emphasise that he is a business . man making a business statement. Only the voice was something graver than its wont. "ALL EUROPE GRATEFUL." He began with the origins of the Czechoslovak dispute merely to remark that if the article of the Covenant of the League which provides for revision of treaties had been put into operation before passions were exasperated the crisis might have been avoided. There was a general cheer at that.

Then came a long, lucid narrative of events since the deadlock in July. It started with a definition of the principles of British policy. The country would not have followed the Government into a war undertaken to prevent a minority obtaining autonomy. Where a spark might bring a general conflagration, it was our duty to do anything in our power to help agreement. So mediation was decided upon. The object was good enough to justify the risk.

Mr. Chambsrlain spoke in the warmest terms of Lord Runciman's endeavours. "All Europe must always be grateful to him." By this time it had become clear that the Socialists were in no mood to trouble the Prime Minister with partisan interruption. Mr. Chamberlain did not spare plain speaking. When Lord Runciman had obtained a suitable basis for negotiations, military preparations in Germany, "normal measures, threatening gestures," endangered peace. But on the British Ambassador's remonstrance Herr yon Ribbentrop refused to discuss the military movements. REPEATED WARNINGS. Then Sir John Simon repeated in a public speech the Prime Minister's emphatic warning that if war broke out Britain might be involved. Sir Nevile Henderson gave Herr yon Ribbentrop a "strong personal warning" of Britain's attitude to aggression before the Nuremberg Congress. Nothing was left undone. Sir Nevile Henderson informed Field-Marshal Goering, Herr yon Ribbentrop, Dr. Goebbels, and Baron yon Neurath of the British position and reported that there could be no doubt it was in the mind of the German Government.

Herr Hitler's speech at Nuremberg, though slightly diminishing general tension, had "an immediate and unfortunate effect on the Sudetens." There followed the rioting which led to martial law in Czeqhoslovakia. Herr Henlein fled to Germany to form a Sudeten legion of 40,000 men. There was then immediate danger of a German invasion of the country which might lead to a European war.