BROKEN PLEDGES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20034, 5 September 1939, Page 6

BROKEN PLEDGES

HITLER’S LONG LIST WORD NOT TRUSTED PRETENCE TO POLAND CHAMBERLAIN'S CENSURE BROADCAST TO GERMANY. (Klee. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (British Official Wireless.} Reed. 1 p.m. RUGBY, Sept. 4. The Prime Minister. Mr. Neville Chamberlain, in his address specially broadcast to the German people last night said: “Your country and mine are now at war. Your Government has bombed and invaded the free and independent State of Poland, which this country is in honour bound lo defend. “Because your troops were not withdrawn in response to the note which

.e British Government addressed io the German Government war has followed."

After reviewing Ilerr Hitter’s pretence that Poland had rejected the peace offer and the attitude adopted to the Polish Ambassador, Mr. Chamberlain said: “This is not negotiation. This is dictation. To such methods no self-respecting and powerful State could assent. Negotiations on a free and equal basis might well have settled the matter in dispute. “You may ask why Britain is concerned. We arc concerned because we gave our word of honour to defend Poland against aggression. No Trust in Leader’s Word

"Why did we feel it necessary to pledge ourselves to defend this eastern Power when our interests lie to the west? The answer is that —and I regret to have to say it—nobody in this country any longer places any trust in your leader's word.

“We had his word that he would respect the Locarno Treaty. He broke it. He gave his word that he neither wished nor intended to annex Austria. He broke it. He declared after Munich that he would not incorporate Czechoslovakia in the Reich. He did -so. He gave his word after Munich that he had no further territorial demands in Europe. He broke it. He gave his word that he wanted no Polish provinces. ITc broke it. He has sworn to you for years that he was the mortal enemy of Bolshevism. He is now its ally. “Can you wonder that his word for us is not worth the paper it is written on, “In this war we arc not fighting against you German people, for whom we have no bitter feeling, but against the tyrannous and forsworn regime which lias betrayed not only its own people but the whole western civilisation and all that you and we hold dear. “Mav God defend the right."