THE ENTENTE CORDIALE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23365, 3 December 1937, Page 8

THE ENTENTE CORDIALE

The Anglo-French conversations this week have served a useful purpose in the respect that they have conveyed to the world an intimation that Great Britain and France -are in perfect harmony in the view they take of international issues, not confined to those which particularly affect Europe. They have been of value, therefore, in dissipating any suspicion, which may have been excited by the recent visit of Lord Halifax to Germany, that there was a danger of the British Government entering into an arrangement with that country that would have been prejudicial to the interests of France. The official pronouncement concerning the outcome of the conference between MM. Chautemps and Delbos and members of the British Government is couched in guarded terms, as pronouncements of the kind generally are, and does not convey much information to the public. It includes, however, the statement that a preliminary examination was made of all aspects of the colonial question. From this, and from the comments in the London newspapers upon the conversations, it appears that serious consideration was given to the clairps which Herr Hitler and his satellites have been making for the restoration to Germany of the colonies that were lost by tier in terms of the peace settlement in 1919. It would seem also that these claims are being regarded as a matter of such immediate importance as to warrant an examination of them without delay as a preliminary to some form of solution of them being submitted to a conference at which the dominions would be represented. Actually, however, there are international issues of greater urgency and greater delicacy at the present time, and these must have received careful and even anxious consideration at the conversations. But they are issues respecting which an effort must be made to secure an agreement to Which other European Powers will adhere. “We must,” the Prime Minister told the House of Commons, “ ultimately contemplate other countries being brought into the conversations.” The situation in China, where the interests of various foreign Powers are being endangered, is of such a character as to place it in a category by itself and to render it highly desirable and important that there shall be prompt co-operation on the part of the countries that are affected. But there is a wide range of questions about which it is necessary that the principal European Powers shall be brought into consultation with the Western democracies in order that existing and possible causes of friction may be removed and that peace may be established and safeguarded on the Continent. Fortunately the impression has been formed in Great Britain that any threat of a war involving the countries of Europe has disappeared at present. The psychological effect of the creation of this impression is not to be ignored.