To the Editor of the "Nowrs-Cutka Dairy News" sm,—Your leader of September 22 has, as expected, drawn to your esteemed columns several correspon: ents for and against, but if room SHI open for further discussion I hope You will Kindly extend to me the Courtesy of your valued columns.
I may say that the views envisaged the said article was, on the whole, overstated even from'an ultra opt-{mistie point of view. 1 fr. Chamberlain. was dealing with people who know where to draw the line, the attempt might have been justified by the ends, but Herr Hitler is not aman of that Kidney. He has already {old Att. Chamberlain, in plain words, at Berchtesgaden that there lite "Germany's claims, as_ex~ amplified by his renewed' memorandum, with - increased demands presented to him at Godesburg, be-Yond an already-agreed-upon settle-iment, From the start, it was foreseen by many, that if war was to be averted {it would not be accomplished by the visit of the Prime Minister to Herr Hitler. This prediction has partly proved to be correct. I have ever fo held the view that a frm and strong front always produces, better, results with people who do net know Where and when to slop, than procrastination, and had the British and French Governments adhered to their original plan and maintained their fern stand, perhaps the Czechs would have come off better than they can hope to do now. To my thinking, Herr Hitler, at the eleventh hour, would have compromised rather than Fish a war with the odds against his country. Though not, wholly through his own fault, Mr. Chamberlain has certainly failed in his efforts to negotiate with such as the Hitler regime, to say nothing of the prestige the British Empire has lost in. the attempt.
Taird-class, though you chose to call it, T belong to that school of thought, and still believe, to put It in your own words, "that if the nettle has to be grasped," it is better done now than leave' It to the unknown *tomorrow," and it would prove the only way to save Europe and the world from the menace now looming in the alr, brought about by the dictatorcounteles viz, Germany and Italy.
The Washington "Post™ which you! quoted in your foot-note on September 20 1s no criterion, though the said paper is entitled to its own views. Almost all the English papers from home, excepting "The Times." as reported in last week's "N.CDI." were Unanimous in declaring against the Prime Minister's visit to the Fuehrer.
On the whole, one may ask, what return did Mr. Chamberlain hope to obtain for his overtures at the hands of Here Hitler and his regime? Their written word? and how much would that "be worth? In earlier days, JGerman statesmen used solemn treates as scraps of paper, and during the past few years they have flagrantly torn such treaties to shreds. When Germany got. back the Rhine in 1833, Merr Hitler was jubilant, and said, with the Rhine returned to us, Germany will have no further claims to make, but in a few months' time the Fuehrer, in "contravention of" the! Versailles Treaty, armed Germany to the teeth, brought on the Anschluss and the annexation of Austria, and now he "has created the present [Ceecho-Sudeten upheaval.
These facts should have been seen land considered prior to deciding upon plan doomed from its. outset, to failure. Tt is just as unsafe to bulld Jon shifty ground as itis to lean broken reed.
Facts one Facts, Shanghai, Sept. 28.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.