INOPPORTUNE TIME.

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

INOPPORTUNE TIME.

NEGOTIATIONS WITH ITALY. MR CHURCHJLL’S VIEWS. Received February 23, 9.15 a.m. LONDON, Feb. 22. In tlie House of Commons debate Mr Winston Churchill (Con.) said it would seem to many an inopportune time for negotiations with Italy. The dictator striding from strength to strength', and parliamentary democracies were retreating abashed and confused. The internal condition of Italy was causing Signor Mussolini anxiety, and it was easy to understand why

Count Crandi liad been instructed to encourage talks with Britain. ]t was much Jess easy to understand why we should hurry so eagerly to the rescue. Here was a case where we ought to allow time to play its part. “I believe that Mr Eden acted absolutely right. We shall be asked in the Italian cpnversations to give a lot, and there is little we can receive in return with the exception of concessions by Italy of the long and unprovoked action in which she has indulged against us.” Mr Churchill referred to the effect of “British humiliation” on the United States, adding: “When we have to make a stand on some issue pray God we then do not find, through an unwise policy, that we have to stand alone.” All over the world, Mr Churchill declared, friends of England were dismayed and foes of England exalted. He went on to express his serious misgivings at the tendency of recent British policy towards Germany and Italy as exemplified in Lord Halifax’s mission, and lamented what he regarded as lost opportunities to assert the authority of law and right against might. These courses, he feared, had confused friends and dissipated the reserves of moral strength. Mr It. J. G. Boothby (Conservative) described Mr Chamberlain as playing for high stakes, and urged the need of faith ini his success.