CHAMBERLAIN IN EUROPE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 46, 23 January 1939, Page 8

CHAMBERLAIN IN EUROPE.

PRAISE FOR FOREIGN POLICY. SOUTH AFRICAN’S COMMENTS. CHRISTCHURCH, Jan. 23. An explanation of the motives and of the methods which inspired the foreign policy of Air Chamberlain was given in an interview by Air B. O. Schonegevel. Mr Schonegevel, who has been visiting Christchurch, was one of the leaders of General Jan Smuts’s Party in the South African Parliament before the fusion with General Hertzog’s Party. Last Easter, not long before Lord Runciman left for Prague on his mission, Mr Schonegevel went to Budapest as one of a delegation to inspect the boundary between Hungary and Czechoslovakia. “I have found both in Australia and New Zealand, and also in England, some criticism of Air Chamberlain’s visit to Munich,” he said. “It has been said that it lowered the dignity and influence of the British Empire for the Prime Atinister of England to leave his country to bow the knee to a dictator. But I would reply that it is only the strong that can afford to be generous. The visit was made in the interests of peace, and, therefore, it can only increase the influence wielded by the British Empire.” “A AIERE PATCHWORK.” “As for the visit to Rome,” he continued in answer to a question, “I feel sure that we shall see things change for the better in a few months’ time. You can be sure that one of the principal subjects that Air Chamberlain discussed with Signor Alussolini was Spain. While the upheaval in Spain has done much to disturb the conscience of all decent-thinking people, we must not allow the heart to govern the head. To sympathise with somebody’s affliction is one thing; but it is another and quite different tiling to advocate a remedy so drastic that it would outweigh the ill-effects of existing wrongs. The same reasoning applies to Czechoslovakia. When I visited the Hungarian-Czech frontier as one of a delegation of three last Easter we saw how unscientific the boundaries defined in the Treaty of Versailles were. Central Europe is a mere patchwork.

“We then ca.me to realise.” lie continued. “that it was absurd to expect Germany to be satisfied when 3,000,000 of her people wore out off from the Fatherland and living under a foreign flag. We were warned by the Hungarians that should Germany move to settle the matter they would adopt a similar attitude because of the large minority of their nationals within the Czechoslovak State’s boundaries. At the same time we were asked what the British Empire intended to do to put matters straight To this question we replied that while we sympathised with them in their plight we did not think it sufficient to justify England going to war to remedy their troubles. In a democratic nation soon as ours the people as a whole have to lie convinced of the wisdom of a policy before it can be embarked on.”

MR EDEN AND MR CHAMBERLAIN

To a question as to the support that Mr Chamberlain’s policy was commanding in the British electorate, Mr Schonegevel replied, “very strong.” “There is testimony of this in the recent by-elections,” he said. Asked about the prospects of an early election, he replied that there ' were two schools of thought on this question. One of them, which he was inclined to favour, was that the Prime Minister should go to the country to obtain a mandate to continue his foreign policy as he had already revealed it. “This might be the wise thing to do,” he said. “My view is that he would go back with an overwhelming majority.”