CHAMBERLAIN POLICY DEFENDED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23405, 22 July 1939, Page 13 (Supplement)

CHAMBERLAIN POLICY DEFENDED

function of the British Government to carry the Empire into war, but to keep us out of it. That is the policy being pursued bv Mr. Chamberlain's and this policy, with much that has gone before, is discussed by Mr. Glasgow with an ease and calmness lacking sin many current works. In four parts, "The Breaking of a -Bad Tradition," "The Historical Background," " Mr. Chamberlain's •Year," and "Was Munich Wholly a Gaffe?" Mr. Glasgow takes us very smoothly over the thorny paths of diplomacy from the emergence of the. Third Reich as a world power and the creation of the Berlin-Rome Axis to Mr. Chamberlain's continuing moves in his search for a" way out of trouble other than by war. He documents and dates his historical references, and better still, leaves no room for doubt as to whether he is stating a fact or expressing his own or somebody else's opinion. Because Munich is. so much in the public mind, these two quotations from the end of the book are apropos not only in the time sense, but in that they reveal the clearness of Mr. Glasgow's mind and his point of view:— "If Mr. Chamberlain in September, 1938, had allowed Herr Hitler to plunge himself and the world into war, we should now indeed be wringing our hands, and every problem, .with new ones added, would still await solution.V The Foolish Way "In March, 1939, Mr. Chamberlain appeared to have failed in his object of reaching a, pacific understanding with Germany ... But the object is not altered. If we are not clever enough to defeat the gangsters without accepting battle on the gangster's terms, "then wo have lost. What is our object? To save civilisation. Another world war would 'shatter it. Would it console. any intelligent human being to reflect that the gangsters, too, had perished in the general wreck?" Having made already three quotations from this book wlycli arouses gratitude in the heart of an ordinary man, it seems that "Peace With Gangsters?" is almost made for quoting. Here are some more, each one containing a pearl of wisdom:— "The alternative to peace is war. The real -question is not whether we detest the whole German race and its works, but whether we are going to allow the gangsters to bring us down in the general ruin." "The small nations of central Europe are. the world's greatest experts. in being a nuisance to those who trv to dominate them."

TJR task therefore is (1) to I B arm, both as a diplomatic lfever and as a protection, should the worst befall, while using all our ■control to suppress the temptation 'to have a smack at Germany' ; (2) to use our brains through the ecnomic and diplomatic channels to defeat the menace without ruining ourselves in the process." Such sentences have a tonic effect on one wbo feels he has had a surfeit of sensational and hitherto undisclosed ' moves in ■ the diplomatic circle;, who feels that there is sometiling wrong in denunciations of Britain for having "let down" this nation and that; who declines to admit that every nation is right except Britain; "who refuses 'to agree they are true ' pictures which portray Chamberlain, Simon and Halifax as either knaves

or fools; "who,, briefly, revolts against catch-penny declamations masquerading as serious discussions of international policies." • V v "Peace With Gangsters?", does not appear at first sight to be a good title for a work by Mr. George Glasgow, but as soon as his theme becomes evident, an d that is very early, it is seen that it is the correct one. Mr. Glasgow, whose eminence as a student and writer on international affairs and on international and pure finance is appreciated by those whose acquaintance with European politics pre-dates the Anschluss and Sudeten•laud, takes, issue with the nejv school of crises) 'writers whose works are oft quoted with almost bated breath, and who leaT-e nothing but an atmosphere of fear aud hate behind- them. His premise is* that, granted* they are gangsters on the. other side of the international fence, we . would be fools to be led into fighting them with their -weapons, and on ground or their choosing. In any case, it is not the

We Must Defeat Gangsters Accepting REAL-OBJECTIVE IS THE-SAVING OF CIVILISATION • George Glasgow's "Peace with Gangsters? Reviewed by J.L.S.

"It may bo that dictators do need an enemy to dangle before their subjects, as a carrot is dangled before the donkey." / "No one can pretend _ that demo--cracy is a holy dispensation, or that, to criticise it is to slight one of the eternal truths." "A German seldom sees anything wrong in anything German. He is hurt all the more deeply, because he is surprised, when anything German is criticised. It is a case of patriotism without humour and without proportion. An American, an ,Englishman, a Frenchman damns his government as lightly and as regularly as he goes for a walk. To a German, his Government, of whatever kind, is a sacrosanct cult, a fit object only of solemn obedience and of silent reverence." "If We Keep Our Heads" "If we blunder into war, there will be nothing even to save. Everything is in our , favour, 'if we keep our heads." "If war be politics by other means, why should .not politics be made to do its business by its own means?" "In diplomacy, why have a war to change a frontier?" "It is obvious that the world is still too your\g, at any rate in its international aspect, to appreciate the precepts of the Sermon on the Mount,' simple, true and even practical as those precepts be." "Munich in a real sense both saved the peace of the world and served British interests, for war is the graft of militarists and gangsters, and it is better for us to play, not their game, but our own." " Die-Hards " "The title to possession (of Germany's former colonies) was decided by war, the traditional arbiter in such matters. No country in the world subscribes to the principle of force as the arbiter more wholeheartedly than does Germany. On Germany's own principles, the former German colonies are not now Germany's 'legal possessions.' By putting the argument on the ground of legality, instead of on that of goodwill, Germany put art end to the discussion concerning their return."

not end yet. because if it did, the Germans, not being finally and irretrievably/ crushed, might later on restart it. They were afraid of more war. In their fear of more war,, what did they choose? '.They chose more war. "Mr. Chamberlain's mind apparently works on simpler principles. Granted that tlio other people really are 'gangsters.' To clear-minded people it is better, other things being equal, not to have a war with gangsters. Simple people are more likely to be sound in their judgment than the clever people whose overworked brains and imaginative fears drive them, like fascinated rabbits, into the very thing they fear." "Of a truth, more rubbish is talked about 'national honour' than about any other form of political folly . .. Peace 'with honour' has been the immemorial cry of those who, as a result, have denied peace to their generation." France in the Ruhr "There were those who believed quite seriously during the last great war that it was a war to end war. A drunkard might ns intelligently believe that he drinks to end drinking." "Having invaded the Ruhr 'to make Germany pay' (and having evacuated the territory within a year without having gained any object), France had to impose new taxes in her own corn try to pay the cost of 'making Gcimany pay."' Germany was by being- totally disarmed." • "Ibe original theory of Government was that of a common sanction for the safeguarding of life and property within a given society . . . By the peiversion of cumulative practice, government has itself become the greatest single menace to life and property." "Letting Down" Nonsense It is one of Mr. Glasgow's contentions that British Imperialist consciousness is such that the British people tend to regard themselves as the world's general keeper. "This complex has curious results," he says: "If Abyssinia falls to Italy it is" we who have 'let her down.' Tf Czecho-Slovakia is annexed by, Germany it is again we who let her down. "We are 'letting down' the Jews in Palestine, or. alternatively, according to the school of thought, we are letting down the Arabs. We did not 'save' Austria. We are not 'saving' China. We either take in, or otherwise provide for. the Jews expelled from Germany. Italy. Rumania. Poland; or we are betraying the general I trust invested in us for looking after Uncle Tom Cobley and all." —"Peace With Gangsters." by George GlasI row, (Jonathan Cape).

After Mr. Chamberlain had saved the world from war at Munich, "many of the shallow people, whose emotions are liable to change quickly, became bellicose when they knew that they would not have to fight." "The 'die-hards' or 'tough guys' said the only satisfactory thing was to have another war with Germany ... In 1916 these (and other apostles of war quoted) said that the war must