BRITAIN’S PEACE TERMS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21558, 22 January 1940, Page 7

BRITAIN’S PEACE TERMS

EUROPE MUST BE SECURE Rule Of Force To Go Speech By Foreign Secretary British Official Wireless (Rec. January 21, 6.30 p.m.) RUGBY, January 21. Speaking at Leeds the Foreign Secretary (Lord Halifax) defined the issues of the war as the liberty and independence of the British Empire and all European states. The speech was given at the continuation of a series of meetings at which members of the War Cabinet are giving an account directly to the public on the war. Lord Halifax declared that the British people did not underrate the strength of the enemy or the sternness of the struggle ahead.

A dictator could make his preparations for war in complete secrecy, whereas the Government in a democracy where there was no surrender of private judgment and no sinister secret police was at an initial disadvantage when it became the victim of a dictator’s aggression, but that Initial disadvantage was more than made up for by the fact that defence measures, when taken, had behind them the overwhelming force of the people’s approval and their united will. The Foreign Secretary reviewed the diplomatic history of recent years, more particularly the post Munich period. In spite of every contentious point of the Munich agreement being settled in Hitler’s favour, it was soon clear that he was profoundly dissatisfied. Privately he inveighed against the agreement and those of his advisors who had stood on the side of peace. Publicly he began within a few days to attack Britain and a campaign of vilification was launched in the German press. It became rapidly evident, Lord Halifax said, that Hitler actually objected to settlement by negotiation and and resented having been baulked of war. and Lord Halifax went on to reveal that during the discussions preceding Munich Hitler made it clear to those taking part that he was anticipating with relish an opportunity of chastising Chechoslovakia. Hitler Disillusioned “I have no doubt that he was also disillusioned, becauses he hoped after Munich that we would be lulled into security and close down on rearmament.” Leaving the Germans in undisputed possession of what Hitler himself called the mightiest armaments that the world have ever known so that the Nazlc would become dictators. not only of Germany, but of Europe. When within six months of Munich Hitler annexed the rest of Czechoslovakia, that act, involving the forceful incorporation in the Reich of millions of men and women of another rpce revealed to the world the real Nazi purpose—German domination — and aroused the very deep instinct in British people which throughout history has always led them to resist attempts of any nation to make itself master of Europe. After contrasting the different use to which British and German strength was put—one to spreading liberty and the other to spreading fear and coercion—Lord Halifax turned to examine the reality behind the proffers of friendship to Britain Hitler was always claiming to have made. In a recent speech at Danzig Hitler complained because he was accused of breaking his word, and declared that in all he had done he had merely kept his word to the German people. Thus, Lord Halifax said, any breach of trust was justifiable if it would help him to realise his ambition and if Britain had shaped its policy on Hitler’s assurances she would have been told after he had broken faith and reduced the Empire to his will that he had merely carried out the proclaimed aims “Mein Kampf.” Lord Halifax cited Finland as an example of Nazi lack of scruples in abandoning erstwhile friends. The real issue present in the struggle was that the basis of Nazi policy plainly was force. Hitler had frankly confesssed that in his view the weak had no right to live. Against that conception the British Commonwealth of Nations stood. The results of the two conceptions of society and Government were vividly contrasted by Lord Halifax when he pictured on the one hand divisions of German troops drained from her reserves moving into Austria, Bohemia, Moravia and Poland to hold down those territories by force, and on the other hand divisions of free men building up British reserves, moving from the free British Dominions overseas and moving of their own free will towards the firing line to uphold Britain's cause.

Lord Halifax recalled how in his preface to German war documents. Ribbentrop, “on whose shoulders before the tribunal of history will rest a heavy responsibility for this war,” had defined the German war aim to be the military destruction of Britain. With this military destruction would come the defeat of all things for which Britain stood—standards of decency, fairness in international relations, the ideal of justice between man and man. “I have no hesitation in saying,” declared Lord Halifax vehemently, “that I would a hundred times sooner be dead than live in a world under the heel of Nazi dominance. ’ “The Bully” Hesitates Lord Halifax next took up the progress of the war campaigns. He said that Germany’s only chance of winning the war was by cashing in quickly on the advantage she possessed through long preparation, fortifications in the west, air strength and readiness to go to all lengths in waging war at sea. “Yet Germany hesitated to launch this big offensive on land or in the air—not certainly, I think, because of any tender feelings for you and me, but simply for the reason that makes a bully hesitate to hit someone who may hit him back.” The Allies for their part made good use of the respite. British and French co-operation was assured in agreements which were unprecedented. On land the French army stood as ever the bastion of western civilisation. Unity of command was arranged from the outset. Meanwhile the Germans had been concentrating their efforts on forms of warfare they had made particularly their own—indiscriminate warfare at sea against

British, Allied and neutral shipping by th? unrestricted use of submarine and mine. But in spite of every breach of international law Germany bad gained astonishingly little. Under the convoy system something like 6000 ships had been convoyed to the end of December with the loss of only 12—one in 500. To-day the oceans of the world had been swept clear of German ships and 140,000 tons run aground or scuttled. Conscious of the failure of the U-boat Germany had resorted to the mine and in doing so showed even more callous indifference than before to the lives of non-combatant passengers and crew. “I am happy to be able to tell you that measures have been adopted and daily are being developed which the Admiralty is confident will effectively cope with the new menace. ’

Referring to contraband control. Lord Halifax said that in the first two months of war German imports from three countries whose trade had to cross the Atlantic fell to 7 per cent, of the figures for the same months of 1938. Even from two neighbouring countries inside the contraband belt German imports were only slightly half those for the same period in 1938. She was making great efforts to increase trade with the Balkans, Scandinavia and Russia but her capacity to export to those countries rested in large measure on seaborne supplies which the Allies steadily were increasingly denying her. “I cannot doubt that factors which will ultimately prove decisive are on our side,” continued Lord Halifax. If that were so at what kind of peace did Britain aim? That had been clearly defined by Mr Chamberlain. “We must insist upon the restoration of liberty to small nations which Germany has cruelly deprived of it and profiting as I hope by experience of the past we shall do our utmost to secure Eurooe from a repetition of this disaster. We seek nothing for ourselves. We have said publiclj’ that if we ca once again feel secure that the German Government would respect its undertakings and honestly co-ooerate in trying to build instead of destroy European peace upon the terms of live and let live for all nations. We should not seek any vindictive peace or one which would deny Germany her rightful place among the nations. The only reason why peace cannot be made tomorrow is that the German Government has as get given no evidence of its readiness to repair the damage which it has inflicted upon it" weaker neighbours or of its capacity to convince the world that any pledge which it may subscribe to is worth more than the paper upon which it is written.”