BRITAIN AND FRANCE

Taranaki Daily News, 15 September 1934, Page 8

BRITAIN AND FRANCE

"WAR WOULD BE FATAL.” SIR A. CHAMBERLAIN’S VIEWS. Paris, Sept. 4. "If ever war breaks out between Britain and France I shall be on my country’s side, right or wrong, but I am convinced that such a war would be fatal to both and a world calamity,” says Sir Austen Chamberlain in an article in Figaro. Sir Austen pleads ardently for Britons and Frenchmen to study more deeply their mutual points of view and temperaments, as a means to a better understanding. "Britain and France, alone among the great European Powers, defend a common civilisation, comprising ideas deeply rooted in the national character, which elsewhere have lost their appeal,” writes Sir Austen. "The first meeting between an Englishman and a Frenchman is as awkward as it is naturally cordial between an Englishman and a German, but that is a false cordiality. The more deeply Frenchmen and Englishmen penetrate each other’s natures the more common qualities they discover, while closer contact between Englishmen and Germans reveals deeper divergencies in faith and spirit. "Englishmen whose experience and knowledge of Germany is greatest sound a danger warning the loudest.”