WESTERN ALLIES IN EARNEST

Southland Times, Issue 23816, 13 May 1939, Page 7

WESTERN ALLIES IN EARNEST

Intention To Carry Out Pledges

DEFENCE OF POLISH INDEPENDENCE

PRIME MINISTER COMMENTS ON RESOLVE OF PEOPLE

(United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) RUGBY, May 11.

A declaration that there was only one danger of war in Europe, and that was if the impression should get about that Britain and France were not in earnest and could not be relied upon to carry out their pledges was a notable feature of the speech to women members of the Conservative Party in the Albert Hall by the Prime Minister (Mr Neville Chamberlain). Mr Chamberlain said that no greater and no more deadly mistake could be made abroad than to be misled by the impression that Britain and France were not in earnest and could not be relied upon to carry out their pledges. Discussing Danzig, he added emphatically that, if an attempt were made to change the situation there by force in such a way as to threaten Polish independence, that would inevitably start a general’conflagration in which Britain would be involved. In another allusion to the international situation, Mr Chamberlain said that the British people had settled down in a mood of firm and fixed resolve, confident in their strength and clear in their consciences that their Government had done and was doing all that men could do to preserve peace and were convinced of the right and the unselfishness of their aims. He added that Britain was as ready as ever to listen to the views of others, but was determined not to submit to dictation. It had never been Britain’s wish to isolate or to encircle Germany nor to stand in the way of her natural and legitimate trade expansion. Neither in armaments nor in economics did Britain desire to ente r into unbridled competition with Germany. Britain would not refuse to discuss with Germany measures for the increase of trade or for the improvement of economic conditions, provided only that Britain could have unmistakable signs from Germany of a desire to restore that confidence which had been so severely shaken. Mr Chamberlain repudiated the suggestion that the basis of the AngloGerman Naval Treaty had been removed, as Herr Hitler had attempted

to claim, by the change in the British attitude towards Germany. Speaking of the great burden of armaments which lay upon the world, the Prime Minister observed that, if only the world could get a respite from international tension and from anxiety about war, they could look confidently forward to a great expansion of trade and prosperity from which not one, but every people in the world would benefit.