PEACE FRONT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23428, 18 August 1939, Page 9

PEACE FRONT

PURPOSES REVIEWED POSSIBLE NEGOTIATIONS DISARMAMENT ESSENTIAL CZECHS MUST BE FREED By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright British Wireless LONDON, Aug. 16 Discussing the full purposes of the peace front, in which Russia's -early inclusion is anticipated, the Times says: "The main object manifestly is to prevent war and to halt aggression by establishing that it cannot pay—by showing, in other words, that the aggressor will lose in a war if he launches one. "No words can add to the certainty that Britain, with her allies, will go to waf without the smallest hesitation to , frustrate a German assault upon the independence of Poland, whatever the | nttempt to cloak and obscure it with details of a dispute over Danzig. The answer to force will be force, and that answer will be. given decisively. Founding a .New Peace "When the peace Powers have perfected their diplomatic and military instruments of defence the moment will have come for them to formulate the principles on which they will be jointly ready to found a new peace, and the terms on which' they, for their part, will be prepared to negotiate a settlement. The next task, therefore, which will presently lie before the peace Powers is to determine, in common, the essence of a peace programme and to .put it before the world." In concluding its discussion of this programme, the Times states: "If there is to be progress toward a truly organised peace, disarmament must come, the Nazi interpretation of lebensraum ( (living space) must go, and the Czechs must be set, free to exercise their right of self-government. Oolonlal Aspirations

"Moreover, legitimate aspirations in the colonial field must be satisfied without any question of reverting to the old conception of peoples and territories as chattels for exchange. Under the. modern accepted principle of trusteeship a wider equality is in fact attainable than any trading of possessions could accomplish. "These are the bare conditions, dictated by no one and nothing, save by the exigencies of peace itself. If they* are accepted there can be no reason to despair of meeting the political, financial and commercial demands which Europe will bring to the table. Until genuine confidence in peace is proved possible, however, the only practical service to peace is to man its defences in full strength."

CRISIS ANTICIPATED LONDON NERVING ITSELF PREPARATION FOR ANYTHING WRITER , ON., THE SITUATION LONDON. Aug. 16 A noted journalist, Sir Arthur Willert, formerly of the British Foreign Office staff, in an article contributed to the North American Newspaper Alliance, discusser the possibility of a totalitarian move to give Herr Hitler his "window-dressing," while saving Poland from the fate of Czecho-Slovakia. The writer mentions tho suggestion —of which ho says more will be heard —for fin East European version of the Locarno Treaty. Under this, assured of assistance by the Great Powers if any signatory attacked her, Poland would feel strong enough to allow the Statute of Danzig to be so altered as to enable Herr Hitler to proclaim that it safeguarded Germans from Polish domination. The chief difficulty here, as in 1925, was the inclusion of Russia. Referring to the German assumption of Britain's lack of hardness of will, as exemplified by the surrender of tho four Chinese at Tientsin, Sir Arthur says London is nerving itself for a violent crisis. The word lins gono to tho appropriate authorities to bo prepared for anything.