CONCILIATION OR CONFLICT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 234, 1 September 1938, Page 11

CONCILIATION OR CONFLICT.

FOR PARTIES TO CHOOSE.

SEARCH FOR SOLUTION. (British Official Wireless.) Received September 1, 11.8 a.m. RUGBY, Aug. 31. Newspaper comment on the Czechoslovak situation continues to emphasise the need for a spirit of concilation on all sides. The Times, referring to the activities of the British Ministers in the past few days, says: “They have quite manifestly had no unfriendly intention. Britain has been at pains to leave no one in doubt that it does not abandon, and has no intention of abandoning, its persistent search for the means of an agreement with the Governments and peoples who, whatever doctrines shape their Constitution and domestic policies, are prepared for reciprocity an the international field. The merits of the German-Czech dispute are not, for the moment, the issue in the considerations which are guiding British policy. Britain is not convinced that the resources of conciliation, which were recently reinforced hv the presence of Lord Runciman, have vet been provisionally tested in Prague, much less that they have been exhausted. “In the British view ” adds the Times, “the real examination of the possible methods of escape from an impasse that l>odes no good for the Czechs or for the Germans has hardly begun as yet. In this country there never has been any doubt about the nature of the sacrifices required from Czechoslovakia. The opinion from the Left to the Right of politics is agreed, in principle, that a large devolution of authority to different racial sections is overdue, ine further the Czech parties are prepared to go in the granting of autonomy, and the larger the degree of consent they can secure to the partnership, of other races in a common Constitution, tne less conditional must its vitali y be and less dependent upon external aids and assurances. They are nearly selfevident propositions. They presume on the oart of minorities an equal grasp of their interests. On both sides of the table the sense of responsibility should be fortified by a right-minded fear of failure. The parties themselves and the communities they represent would be the first victims of failure and would be doomed to bear the worst burde of sutferir- and destruction if thei way of conflict were to be preferred to the way of parley, concession and peace, hard and uninviting as it may appea at this stage.”