PARIS CRITICAL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19777, 3 November 1938, Page 7

PARIS CRITICAL

INTIMIDATION HINTED STRENGTH OF GERMANY BERLIN SATISFACTION REACTION IN ROME (Elec,. T'c.r. Copyright—United P r ess Assn.) (Reed. Nov. 3, 9 a.m.) LONDON, Nov. 2. Reports from Paris state that the French newspapers generally adversely criticise the speech made yesterday in the House of Commons by Mr. Neville Chamberlain. It is suggested that he was intimidated by Germany’s strength.

A message from Rome states that Mr. Chamberlain’s announcement of the implementation of the AngloItalian agreement gave the greatest satisfaction in Italy.

Berlin messages state that general satisfaction is expressed in the German newspapers over Mr. Chamberlain’s speech yesterday.

The Voelkischer Beobachter says that Mr. Chamberlain closed the Versailles epoch from English history and opened a new chapter. The real importance from the speech was not the justification of policy which led to the signing of the Munich agreement, but the attempt to create a hypothesis for new European co-operation based on the Munich agreement.

OPPOSITION OPINIONS NEED FOR CAUTION NEW CZECH FRONTIERS COLONIAL POLICY (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 9 a.m. RUGBY, Nov. 1. In opening the debate in the House of Commons to-day on the motion for the adjournment, the Leader of the Opposition, Major C. R. Attlee, said they would have an opportunity tomorrow in discussing the Government’s proposal to ratify the AngloItalian agreement to state their objections to that course and to explain their position on the very large questions of international policy that it raised —particularly the vitally important question of Spain.

After criticising in a number of details the application of the Munich agreement and asking for further information on the proposed guarantee of the new frontiers of Czechoslovakia, Major Attlee said he was opposed to committing Britain to vague obligations outside the framework of the League of Nations. He called attention to the economic consequences of recent events and contended that through the absence of economic planning, the Government had left the country, despite its great economic resources, in no fit condition to meet the challenge of the trade drive by Germany.

Major Attlee said they heard talk of a national register, but there was already a national register of people who wanted work, but could not find it. The unemployment was an example of how the country’s immense potential strength was not being brought into play. The same lack of planning was seen in the Government defence measures. There had been failure to decide on a plan as a result of which the vital need for passive defence against air attack had been neglected and subordinated to the needs of the fighting services.

Asylum to Refugees

The Liberal leader, Sir Archibald Sinclair, who followed the Prime Minister, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, urged the Government to extend more general asylum to refugees from the Sudetenland. Sir Archibald Sinclair, like Major Attlee, argued that the House ought to think very carefully before deciding to give a guarantee to Czechoslovakia in the new circumstances which had arisen out of the Munich settlement. Mr. Chamberlain’s speech, he said, left him puzzled and bewildered. Mr. Chamberlain had no right to ask them to have faith in Herr Hitler’s signature to the Munich declaration as long as the German and Italian signatures to the non-intervention agreement were not implemented.

Sir Archibald Sinclair next asked about the Government’s policy on colonies. Were they going to raise the question or wait until Herr Hitler raised it, he asked.

Sir Archibald urged a colonial policy based on trusteeship for the natives, secondly, that all Powers with colonial interests must be consulted, and thirdly, that the solution must be part of a general settlement with a measure of general disarmament.