PAUSE IN CRISIS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23145, 17 September 1938, Page 14

PAUSE IN CRISIS

Mr. Chamberlain's visit to Herr Hitler has been paid and is over. Of positive results there is little to show. The two men who, more than any other living beings at the moment, bear the destinies of the world on their shoulders met and talked awhile. Then they parted, with nothing decided, so far as the waiting world has been told. This might seem like anti-climax to Mr. Chamberlain's dramatic move, which so fired the imagination of all who watched and hoped. It need not be so interpreted. Time has been gained, and time is on the side of a peaceful solution. The impulse to compare the present crisis with the fateful days of July and August, 1914, when Europe marched unchecked /to Armageddon is very strong. The analogy should not be pressed too hard, for there are many differences—enough to make it far from a destined end that the result must be the same. Yet out of the comparison can be taken one comforting difference. In 1914 while every desperate expedient to preserve the peace was being tried, with Sir Edward Grey apparently the man of destiny, events were moving rapidly all the time to that conclusion which is now history. Those who were prepared to talk of a settlement would not stay their hands meanwhile. Preparations to act went forward at a fevered pace. While mediation and compromise were being talked of, armies were mobilising and fleets were making ready for the 'sea. At present there is, happily, more of the atmosphere of pause. Frontier forts may be manned, reservists may have been called to the colours, but there is not the same stirring into motion of war machines so huge that their own momentum defied human effort to stop them. In the circumstances of to-day every moment of delay is a moment gained, and Mr. Chamberlain has been the agent for securing a very hopeful delay.