“NOT INEVITABLE”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23515, 1 June 1938, Page 9

“NOT INEVITABLE”

WAR TALK DEPRECATED BRITAIN’S WORK FOR PEACE THE AGREEMENT WITH ITALY (British Official Wireless) (United Press Association) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) RUGBY, May 30. (Received May 31, at 5.5 p.m.) The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Sir John Simon), speaking at a National Government demonstration, said he repudiated altogether the outlook which said that war was inevitable, that certain countries were bound to be Britain’s enemies, and that all Britain had to do was to try to keep them as powerless and as weak as she could. He would rather hold to the view that, if Britain did her utmost to remove the causes that might lead to war and tried to meet in a fair manner the difficulties that arose, from whatever quarter they came, war was not inevitable. The influence of Britain should be thrown on the side of peace. Sir John said that as a result of the letter from the Prime Minister (Mr Neville Chamberlain) to Signor Mussolini there was opened a new opportunity for reducing a most dangerous state of tension between the Italian people and the British, and after months of patient negotiation an agreement had been reached, which had removed many of the causes of friction and was recognised all over the world to be a contribution towards peace. The Way to Peace This agreement* did not involve any approval of Italy’s invasion of Abyssinia, Sir John continued, and it no more implied that Mr Chamberlain had any sympathy with Fascism than it implied that Signor Mussolini had any sympathy with democracy. The way to peace, the Chancellor declared, was not to be found by ranging the nations of the world into opposing teams determined to resist one another to the death, . It was to be found by seeking out the cause of quarrel and misunderstanding and trying to remove them, and that was the course which Mr Chamberlain had been taking. Lord Samuel had wisely declared the other day that Mr Chamberlain had made absolutely the right choice. Sir John added that Mr Chamberlain had showed profound wisdom, and that his statement should be accepted by the nation, irrespective of party. Manchurian Crisis He sometimes heard reproaches for the course which the Government followed in the Far East in 1932, Sir John continued. The course then adopted was taken throughout in co-operation with the League of Nations as a whole—so much so that Japan had resigned from the League in resentment. But if he had anything to do with saving his country at that time, when the Singapore dock was not finished, and when Britain might have had to face single-handed the responsibility for the disaster of war, he was well content to bear these reproaches.