GAIN TO PEACE FRONT

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 112, 15 May 1939, Page 8

GAIN TO PEACE FRONT

Through the coincidence of recent events in the international world with weekends, special importance has come to be attached to these periods as the occasions for momentous political moves and serious public utterances by leading statesmen of different nations. It is at the weekend that the curve of apprehension characteristic of the times is liable to rise to its peak in the minds of people fearful of some new crisis, though there are signs that public opinion is in the process of becoming hardened to the state of uncertainty. This last weekend has not been without its events. On Friday Mr. Chamberlain announced in the House 6f Commons some details of an understanding reached by Britain and Turkey for co-operation in the Mediterranean area, in the event of war and on the necessity for achieving security in the Balkans as soon as possible. Such an understanding greatly strengthens the peace front Britain has been endeavouring to create to check further aggression by the totalitarian States. Coupled with the Anglo-Rumanian trade agreement, this arrangement with Turkey—it is not yet a definitive pact or treaty — has been warmly welcomed by the British Press as reinforcing the deterrents against the use of force in international disputes, as helping to restore confidence, and as contributing to the peaceful development of economic exchange. There is also the significance, duly noted, of Turkey's place in the Arab world and her close relations with Russia. This would tend to consolidate Britain's position in the Near East and to facilitate the conclusion of an

agreement with Russia with the assurance of access between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.

The other event of the weekend is a speech by Signor Mussolini at the opening of the economic self-suffi-ciency exhibition at Turin. He affirmed once more the solidarity of the Rome-Berlin axis and the ItaloGerman alliance, but he added that the object of his review of the situation was to show that there did not at present exist in Europe "problems of such magnitude as to justify a war which would become universal." This was after a reference to the necessity for cutting "certain knots" in Europe because "harsh reality is sometimes preferable to a long period of difficult suspense." But who is it creates this "long period of difficult suspense"? It is certainly not the nations combining to form a peace front. There have been too many "harsh realities" already, and it is to prevent their recurrence that the peace front is being formed. The Duce prefers to suggest that the democracies do not share the "sincere desire for peace existing in the totalitarian States." While the Duce may persuade his own people to accept his reading of recent history—and even that is doubtful —he will convince nobody •elsewhere.