OUTLOOK IN EUROPE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 228, 25 August 1938, Page 11

OUTLOOK IN EUROPE

BRITISH MINISTERS’ VIEWS, CZECHOSLOVAKIA’S PROBLEM. SPECULATION ON SETTLEMENT (United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) Received August 25, 10.40-a.m. RUGBY, Aug. 24. The Prime Minister (Mr Chamberlain). to-day took the opportunity of the presence in London of Lord Halifax (Eoreign Secretary) and Sir John Simon (Chancellor of the Exchequer) for a discussion on current affairs. It is assumed that the international outlook generally was reviewed, but, in view of the present tension in Central Europe, it is generally believed, that the attention was chiefly directed to that problem and the reelings of insecurity and uncertainty which its developments have aroused.

Hopes are still entertained that the conciliatory efforts of Lord Runciman to achieve a settlement of the differences between ,the Czechoslovakia ai,\ tho Sudetens may prove successful, but it is recognised here that such a result is dependent on goodwill on both. sides as a result of which large and generous concessions would be met in a spirit of accommodation. A Berlin message says that the Bourse is irregular, but the authorities express complete confidence that the market will be able to absorb a new long-term loan planned for October. SUDETEN PROBLEM. CRITICAL STAGE NEAR. PRAGUE, Aug. 24. The imminence <of Lord Runciman s approach to the vital issues of the Sudeten Czech problem is discerned in the fact that his staff last night conferred with a Parliamentary commission of six representing all the Government parties, while his adviser (Mr Ashton Watkin) attended a meeting of five Sudeten Germans, including Herr Henlein, with whom lie was secretly closeted for a long period the previous evening. GERMAN INVECTIVE. COMPLAINTS BY CZECHS. LONDON, Aug. 12. Czech newspapers complain that Germany is trying to create an atmosphere that will make the success of Lord Runciman’s mission to Prague impossible. Clandestine plots are attributed to the Sudeten German “Voluntary Protection Corps.” This is only a thinly disguised body of Nazi Storm Troopers, formed for the purpose of creating incidents and clashes, Czech newspapers assert. They protest against a “relentless campaign of hatred and invective” 1 in Germany. The campaign is being, carried on also by the Sudeten faction in Czechoslovakia itself. The official Czech news agency alleges that deliberate distortion has been practised in order to give the impression that the German --population of Czechoslovakia is terrified by the Czechs. ’• ' ", Czech newspapers complain also that the Polish wireless network “quotes and repeats all German attacks upon the Czechs without comment or criticism.”