NATIONAL FEVER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22399, 22 October 1934, Page 8

NATIONAL FEVER

BLOOD LETTING AS CURE AN ANTIQUATED METHOD REJECTED BY CONSCIENCE (British Official Wireless.) (United Press Association.) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) RUGBY, October 19. Sir John Simon, in a speech at Northampton, made a short reference to the horrible event which occurred at Marseilles 10 days ago and the attitude of Britain in relation to the immediate European situation. He said: "The uppermost thought of all of us when we heard of this dastardly crime was not of high policy, or even of the risks which in some cases accompany the splendours of royalty, but of a husband and father so tragically removed, of his sorrowing widow and of a little boy just starting his new term like other little boys at an English school, and who is now suddenly called away to be plunged into the vortex of the complicated affairs of his country. It is as a Roman poet said, ' These are the mortal things that touch the heart.' And at the same . moment, by the • same cruel means, France has lost an eminent statesman, ripe in years and experience, whose high qualities of energy and resource I had learned in the course of personal collaboration at Geneva greatly to admire. Assassination is not only the wickedest, but it is the most stupid, of political crimes. How seldom in history, from the assassination of Julius Ceesar to the assassination of Dr Dollfuss, has political assassination accomplished the intended result? " It was inevitable, when this shocking • news first reached the ear of the public, that men should remind themselves of the murder at Serajevo 20 years ago and should ask themselves whether this was some portent of new and grave trouble in Europe. "I cannot too strongly insist that the two cases do not provide a parallel, but a contrast. Then the event instantly provoked a fierce quarrel between a great State and a small one, in which other States rapidly ranged, themselves on either side. Nothing of that sort can happen now. The antiquated method of blood letting as a cure for national fever is rejected not only by conscience, but by 'experience. The value of the League of Nations cannot be measured merely by making a list of its concrete successes and failures, but by realising how . much it contributes to the cause of good understanding and assuaging sudden resentments by providing an outlet for and encouraging resort to the practice of intercommunication, which it . has made an ordinary habit of European statesmen. The British policy has been steadily directed in these ways, without incurring any new commitments of any kind, counselling patience and moderation in all directions. For as firm friends of peace we feel sure that it is in the interests of Europe as a whole to facilitate the difficult task which confronts the new Jugoslavian "Government, and that a strong, united, prosperous and contented Jugoslavia is a major European interest."

THE MARSEILLES CRIME ! BELGRADE, October 20. (Received Oct. 21, at 7 p.m.) A meeting of representatives of the Little Entente issued a communique stating that the Marseilles crime was committed under influences working beyond the frontiers and came within the domain of foreign policy. It is understood that the meeting decided to register protests with the Hungarian Government and the League of Nations against the assistance allegedly given by Hungarian authorities to:, i. terrorist organisations which planned the assassination of King Alexander.' A PLOT FRUSTRATED VIENNA, October 20. (Received Oct. 21, at 7 p.m.) An attempt on the life of Prince Stathemberg was frustrated by a policeman, who at midnight saw two armed men in a. car waiting for the Vice-chancellor, who was due to pass from a meeting at the headquarters of the Heimwehr.' The armed men drove off when they were observed. The number of the car proved to be a fake.