EUROPEAN SITUATION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 77, 28 February 1938, Page 10

EUROPEAN SITUATION.

(To the Editor.; Sir, —j have a presentiment that some of my critics will pounce on me for using the Press on this occasion, hut if they had received the great shock which was like a thunderbolt to me, they might think differently. This has been just as realistic to me as though I were still living in Kent. Mr Chamberlain has not even asked me to open my door to Signor Mussolini' but he is insisting and compelling me to march with others —against our will —-to meet Mussolini more than half-way and shake hands and receive him as an intimate friend, when we know quite well that as soon as we turn to come back he will act as a serpent in the grass. How has he acted in the past? With one hand he has sent out airships and’submarines to sink our ships and brethren, while with the other he has tried to smooth us down. He has forsaken his old friend (France) and taken on the new friend (Germany) with the sole object of uniting with her to stir up stnie in Spain, in addition to irritating us by using the Press to pour out poisonous accusations in his own country and also in Palestine. After all this we hear Mr Chamberlain’s voice saying that he has had a vision of <3O years peace. How ridiculous these words are. We are not surprised that Mr Lloyd George told him that he was too soft-boned for these dictators. What is Germany doing now ? She has found 21 million pounds to complete her rearmament; she declares that she will be so strong that no other nation dare touch her. She has already clearly shown that it will then be her intention to grab one small State after another; and we ourselves may be left standing with our mouths and eyes open in amazement, and it may yet be our turn to be compelled to crouch and hide, unless we can find young men to come forward to take the place of such men as Mr Lloyd George and Mr Baldwin, and another Kitchener for the Army. In such men as these we could put our entire confidence and feel S!veexperienced a servere blow in 191’ when Mr Asquith was at the head or affairs, but at that time the Divine Power raised up a man in the person of Mr Lloyd George, who sprang forth with the energy of a lion to save the sinking ship or State, which he steered through the roughest storm that has ever been known in history and brought into the harbour of safety. This great man, having then fulfilled his mission, gently slid -outot harness, and gave place to two other great men, who in their turn rendered good service to the nation in less trcrahlous times.—l am, etc., THOS. YOUNG. Fitzherbert West.