NEWS OF THE WEEK
ANY optimistic reading of the international situation must be based mainly on the assumption that German strategy in the matter of Czechoslovakia rested on a threat of force, and that Sir John Simon's speech at Lanark on Saturday frustrated that policy by showing that the balance of force would not be on the German side. The outburst of anti- British articles in the Berlin Press had this value, that Sir John Simon could not be criticised without being quoted, with the result that the German people, kept ignorant of many things, knows clearly now what Great Britain's attitude is ; and the German people's dread of a European war is manifest. The Chancellor of the Exchequer could not have stated the case entrusted to him better. He said there was nothing to vary in the Prime Minister's declarations of last March and nothing to add to them ; but in fact their mere repetition at this particular juncture, and the special reference Sir John Simon himself made to Czechoslovakia, did add new emphasis to the warning addressed to Germany five months ago. The Lanark speech was studiously conciliatory. There is no ground whatever for the German suggestion that the Chancellor was making himself an advocate for the Czechs ; the Czechs themselves might with some justice complain that the British Cabinet in its desire for a settlement is pressing to go further than is reasonably possible. But Czech restraint and German venom have undoubtedly swung a mass of hesitant opinion everywhere to the Czech side. * *
