NO DANGER OF WAR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23463, 30 March 1938, Page 10

NO DANGER OF WAR

VIEWS OF ARMY VISITORS ALARMIST TALK DEPRECATED (Per United Press Association) WELLINGTON, Mar. 29. “So far as Britain is concerned, there is no danger of war,” said Colonel R. H. Goldthorp, of Halifax, who arrived at Wellington by the Awatea to-day. “ We are picking no quarrels with anyone,” Colonel Goldthorp added. “People on this side of the world seem far more jumpy than anywhere else. In Australia they certainly talk a lot of rubbish about Avar. The papers seem to print anything alarming and give the dictators a lot of free advertisement. We ought to make a rule not to mention them for 10 years. If we did not talk about them so much they would not get such grand ideas about themselves. The less we talk about war the less likely it is to come. The more we talk about it the more likely we are to create a situation leading to the danger.” A similar optimistic view was expressed by Lieutenant-colonel J. O’Sullivan, of London, another arrival by the Awatea. “The international situation is safer to-day than it has been for two or three years,” he said. “Since Mr Chamberlain came into power a spirit of realism seems to be gaining ground instead of rather dangerous idealism.”