ABSENT FROM DINNER

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 143, 14 December 1938, Page 9

ABSENT FROM DINNER

GERMAN GUESTS

OBJECTION TO PREMIER'S

REFERENCE

(Received December 14, 1 p.m.)

LONDON, December 13

A sensation was caused by the lastminute refusal of the German Ambassador and German journalists to attend the jubilee dinner of the Foreign Press Association because they objected to Mr. Chamberlain's reference to the German Press not scrupling to vituperate against Earl Baldwin, the text of the speech having been issued in advance.

There is comment on the fact that diplomatic action had been taken on the matter before the delivery of the speech.

The journalists' decision not to attend was conveyed to the committee forty-five minutes before the dinner. There was no message from the German Embassy, but invited officials were absent.

The loudest and longest applause of the speech greeted the criticised passage. Mr. Chamberlain slightly altered the text of his speech in reference to Earl Baldwin. *

In the original draft Mr. Chamberlain said that in few cases had the German Press shown any signs of a desire to understand the British viewpoint.