CONCILIATORY BUT FIRM

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 76, 31 March 1939, Page 8

CONCILIATORY BUT FIRM

M. Daladier's broadcast address, which was received too late for comment yesterday, will have the effect we then anticipated of steadying the European situation. The French Premier, in defining the attitude of France, was in no respect provocative in his carefully chosen words. While maintaining the original French contention in regard to the Italian Note of December 17 that Italy therein had made no specific proposals to France, he added that France did not refuse to examine proposals which might be made to her. This, as "The Times" points out, leaves the door open. "France awaits the Italian proposals," declared M. Daladier, affirming that the December Note did not contain any precise points. "Its essential argument," he said, ' was that the conquest of Ethiopia and the formation of the Italian empire had created new rights in favour of Italy." This argument France declined to accept, for it would mean, said M. Daladier, that "each new conquest would create new claims without limit." This indeed seems to be the attitude of the totalitarian States generally. Referring to.Munich, the Premier said that France had not ceased to show evidence of good will towards Germany, but events in Czecho-Slovakia had dealt a very severe blow. Mr. Chamberlain has already recorded his bitter disappointment at tlie failure of similar efforts for peace. So M. Daladier could feel that he would have the sympathy of Britain and the free peoples of the world when he said that if war was imposed or became the alternative between freedom and dishonour the whole nation would arise to defend its liberty.

Thus, while standing firm on the rights of France, M. Daladier is willing to listen to what proposals Italy has to make. With unspecified claims it is impossible to deal and, as he says, "no one could argue that they have been presented by newspaper articles or street cries"— an allusion to inspired agitation in Italy earlier in the year. If M. Daladier's statement is studied carefully, it will be found to accord with the policy hitherto pursued by France and Britain in an endeavour to maintain peace in Europe despite rebuffs. No satisfactory response to these overtures has yet been received from the totalitarian Powers. Signor Mussolini's latest utterance is reported in today's cable news. In a speech during a tour of southern districts he said:

Pacts or no pacts, we will never resign ourselves to remaining prisoners in the Mediterranean. Italy is ready to stand up for her claims. Speeches are mere words unless they are accompanied by deeds.

These remarks were made after M. Daladier's broadcast, yet there is just the same old bluster, without a hint of conciliation or negotiation. The reference to "pacts or no pacts" can hardly be to France, for the Franco-Italian Agreement of 1935 was cancelled by the Note of December last. The Anglo-Italian Pact negotiated last year still exists. Is this now threatened? In the light of speeches like this of the Duce, M. Daladief struck tlie right note in the final passage of his address when he invited the collaboration of all Powers ready to collaborate in the maintenance of peace, but ready also to rise against aggression with one bound. These words should find the "brotherly echo" he besppke in the hearts of friendly nations all over the world.