CABINET SPLIT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 73, 23 February 1938, Page 9

CABINET SPLIT

SYMPATHY FOR MR EDEN. OPPOSITION VIEWPOINT. V " “TAVO FOREIGN OFFICES.” (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) LONDON, Feb. 22. Speaking in the House of Commons, the Leader of the Opposition (Mr C. R. Attlee) said that Mr Chamberlain’s speech revealed that two Foreign Offices had been operating. “I sympathise with Mr Eden, who has sutrered from apparently extremely amateur methods,” ho said. “Mr Eden is now thrown to the wolves in an affair unparalleled in English history. It is curious when foreigners have been continually attacking the foreign Minister that his colleagues have not supported him.” Mr Attlee, added that Signor Mussolini was a bankrupt dictator living on “tick,” with increasing home difficulties. The Spanish war was not successful, and Abyssinia was unsettled. Moreover, the llome-Berlin axis was uneasy. Hitler had jumped into Austria. n , “It is just at this juncture that Mr Chamberlain goes whining, cap in hand, asking for an agreement without a condition,” he said. “I am amazed at this surrender of the greatest world Power to the weakest dictator and the recognition of aggression which will damage British prestige everywhere, including Palestine and Arabia, will seriously affect the United States, and will produce grave repercussions in the Dominions and Britain, where thousands hoped for a peace policy.” Labour members tabled the following vote of censure: “The House deplores the circumstances in which Mr Eden has been obliged to resign, and has no confidence in the Government.” Mr D. It. Grenfell, winding up the debate for Labour, declared that the most jarring note was the intense delight the situation gave Signor Mussolini, who was victorious by Fascist tactics. . . Mr Chamberlain, in reply, said that Mr Grenfell’s speech misrepresented the attitude of the Government, which was only proposing conversations. to Italy. “Moreover, if there is an agreement, it will not be on the terms the other country may impose, but must be acceptable to us, and at least include the things I named. We want a settlement in Spain by making Spanish nationals free from foreign interference,” he said. The debate was adjourned.