BRITAIN'S TENSE INTEREST

Northern Advocate, 9 March 1936, Page 6

BRITAIN'S TENSE INTEREST

GRAVE AND ALARMING STEP f ßritish Official Wireless.] (Received 3 p.m.) RUGBY. March 8. Intense public interest, not unmingled with anxiety, has been aroused by the German Rhineland act. It is recognised that Parliament will exnt ct the earliest possible statement from the Government on the subject. This will be made tomorrow in the House of Commons by Mr Anthony Eden, who will have had an opportunity of full consultation with his Minis-'-nal colleagues. .Meanwhile, Mr Eden has been kept closely informed regarding the trend of opinion in the Governments of other Power signatories to the Locarno Treaty, and, in particular, with the views of the French Government.

v Newspapers discussing Germany’s re-occupation and the terms of the memorandum issued by Herr Hitler emphasise that unilateral denunciation of treaties is, on the face of it, a precarious basis upon whicß to construct a new peace effort. They agree however, that the memorandum must be patiently and carefully examined by the Government to which it is addressed. Mailed Fist and Olive Branch.

A leading article in the “Sunday Observer,” says that Herr Hitler has raised the. mailed fist of one hand and offered an olive branch with the other. While his troops marched into the .Rhine zone he outlined comprehensive proposals for the peace " of Europe.

The Fuhrer thus gives unilateral notice that the entire territory of Germany will henceforth be subject to unfettered control of the German Government. Granted that German. equality, he went on to ingeminate peace. What he said yesterday is bound at once to become the focus of diplomatic activity. • “Brilliant and timely as are the German px’oposals, they must be considered with sober realism, as well as good will. This time Germany repudiates a treaty which she freely signed and recently reaffirmed. No longer does she argue that an imposed treaty cannot bind her. She does not refer the Locarno Treaty to arbitration. She rejects her own signature.

A Divided'Europe. “We hope andl believe that in elucidation in the next few days both the Russian and French misgivings will be fairly met in Berlin. If that be so Herr Hitler’s proposals will prove to have performed a valuable service, but this must be Germany’s last promise at all costs to be kept.”

The “Sunday Times” says the appeal by Herr Hitler to an accomplished fact is not made for the first time. It recalls that the same method was practised when conscription was restored, when the ban on heavy artillery was transgressed, when German forces were re-equipped with fighting aeroplanes and submarines. In all these steps he successfully defied a Europe too much divided and distracted to enforce its rights. He will succeed this time again. “The value of the whole system proposed by Herr Hitler in his memorandum depends on the confidence other Powers can feel in the keeping of German engagements. To this confidence the. present action has dealt a severe blow.

“We do not say it is necessarily a fatal one. The point will be dispassionately weighed, but, on the balance. it is difficult not to think that in Europe’s dangerous drift since 1932 yesterday’s events mark a most grave, a most alarming and perhaps an irrevocable stage;