The Wanganui Chronicle. THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 1938. THE REARMAMENT PROGRAMME

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 58, 10 March 1938, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle. THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 1938. THE REARMAMENT PROGRAMME

HTIE increased expenditure proposed by Mr. Neville Chamberlain is Britain’s answer to Germany’s and Italy’s refusal to come to terms on a Pacific basis. In plain English, it is preparation for war in resistance to the demands of. Hitler and Mussolini.

The position now occupied by Mr. Chamberlain is identical with that for which he threw over Mr. Eden. Mr. Eden realised that it was impossible to get anywhere in negotiations with Italy and Germany, and demanded that good faith be established on the relatively small matter of intervention in Spain befoie proceeding further with such subjects as the financial aid of Italy and Germany, the recognition of the conquest by Italy of Abyssinia, and the return of colonial possessions to Germany. Mr. Chamberlain felt that the limit of negotiation had not been reached, and that useful work could be accomplished by carrying on. the negotiations with the two dictatorships in a more general way than Mr. Eden was inclined to do. The break which occurred between the two British statesmen was evidently one of personality, and such a break will not have surprised close observers of the European scene. John Gunther, in his “Inside Europe,” has remarked that Mr. Eden was the creation of Mr. Baldwin, and that when Mr. Baldwin went Mr. Eden would also go. George Sloeombe, in his “Mirror to Geneva,” says the same thing. Mr. Eden was very successful on the, whole, but he was definitely a man of good fortune, wealthy, a Guards officer, a linguist, much travelled, and experienced before he came, early in life, 1o the office of Foreign Secretary. Mr. Chamberlain is the businessman par excellence, experienced in commercial negotiation, of proven ability in the management of a city with a population very nearly equal to that of New Zealand and an administrative area of eighty square miles, and he is a pronounced success as the Chancellor of the Exchequer. From the standpoint of Mr. Chamberlain it was a case of old wine looking on new vintage. From the standpoint of Mr. Eden it was the case of an aristocrat being overruled by a plebian. But it is Mr. Eden who has been proved to have been right, for when Mr. Eden was forced out of the Cabinet there were rejoicings in both Rome and Berlin—unseemly rejoicings at that, it must be remarked, revealing the temper of the Germans and the Italians. In both capitals it was considered that, having secured the dismissal of Mr. Eden, there was now no need to worry about the British Cabinet. Mr. Chamberlain was considered a weak man who was prepared to conic cap in hand to those demanding Danegeld of him, consequently when the re-approach was made by Sir Neville Henderson, the British Ambassador in Berlin, the Chancellor spent the time demanding a curtailment of the freedom of the British Press and practically making a condition precedent to any further negotiations the fulfilment of such demand. A more truculent attitude was also adopted toward France and Czechoslovakia, and there was an intensification of the pressure upon Austria (although this latter had been in operation before the downfall of Mr. Eden). The Step which Mr. Chamberlain had insisted upon in opposition to Mr. Eden as promising some hope of appeasement, had misfired in the way that Mr. Eden indicated it would. The turn of events has clearly vindicated the reading and handling of the situation by Mr. Eden. Mr. Chamberlain lias failed because lie made a generous but miscalculated move. To have failed in one stop, however, is not necessarily to lose the game, and Mr. Chamberlain is too experienced to persist, in a, course which docs not hold out promise of success. Bebuff.ed in Rome and Berlin, ignored and frustrated in his eftorts to make a. further rapprochement, Mr. Chamberlain immediately stiffened in his attitude. He. was not prepared to allow the, boat, to drift toward the cataract, and do nothing. Immediately lie announced the further rearmament, programme, and at the same time France assured Czechoslovakia that support would he forthcoming. Tn short, diplomatically the, challenge has been accepted. Germany has overplayed her hand and the political ghost of Mr. Eden rises up to haunt the dictators of Europe.