FOREIGN REACTION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 1 July 1939, Page 5

FOREIGN REACTION

LORD HALIFAX’S SPEECH j BITTER ITALIAN COMMENT DEATH BLOW TO PEACEFUL SOLUTION OF PROBLEMS (' PA -Bv Klnrtric Teleeraph-CV»nyrfßhtl (Received Ist July, 9.20 a.m.) ROME, 30th June. I Signor Gayda says that Lord Halifax’s speech delivered the death blow to hopes of a peacefully negotiated solution of vital European problems. He ; bitterly assails British and French enj circlement which Germany and Italy ; are ready to face with calm and firm I resolution. A semi-official news agency characterises the speech as “devoid of any constructive proposals whatever.” JAMMING THE BRITISH BROADCAST I Obvious attempts te jam the wireless reception of the Italian version of Lord Halifax's speech, which was broadcast from England, were partly successful. REJECTED BY GERMANY

(Received Ist July. 9.0 a.m.) BERLIN, 30th June. The semi-official organ, the “Deutsche Dienst.” rejects the speech as emphatically as the recent British memorandum on the Naval Treaty. It refers to the speech as “hyprocrisy, with highsounding phrases and empty words .” Britain should cease attempting to make her policy appear peaceful in the eyes of the German people while awaiting the conclusion of the negotiations for the further encircling of Germany, it states. What London is hastening to undertake shows all the signs of having a preventive war as its goal. BRITISH LABOUR PARTY WOULD FIGHT IF GERMANY CHALLENGED (Received Ist July, 9 0 a.m.) LONDON, 30th June. The deputy-leader of the Labour Party, Mr Arthur Greenwood, in a speech in London, pledged his party to f.ght in the event of a German challenge. He said: “British Labour is ever ready to try to understand the problems of other people, particularly the German people, but if a challenge came we would fight. There are greater things than life itself. One of them is liberty. We are prepared to fight to keep liberty alive in this country.”