Evening star., 1938-09-29
- the Associated Press.

b the Associated Press.
LONDON, Sept. 20. - Prim,
Minister Neville Chamberlain
address in the House Of Com
mons yesterday follows:
Shortly before the House adjourned
ut the end Of July. some questions wer'
addressed to me as to the possibilit,
Of summoning the House before ths
time arranged and during the reces.
In certain eventualities.
Those eventualities referred to pos.
sible developments in Spain, but the
matter which has brought us together
today was one which at that time was
already threatening, but which we al
hoped would find peaceful solution
before we met again
Unhappily, these hopes have not
been fulfilled.
Today We are faced with situation
which has had no parallel since 1914.
To find the origins of the present
Controversy it would be necessary to
go back to the constitution OF the
state of Czechoslovakia with all its
Heterogeneous population. No doubt at
the time when 1t was constituted it
seemed to those then responsible that
1t was the best arrangement that
could be made in the light of condi-
lions as they then supposed them to
exist.
Responsibility of League.
H,,n Io1s>
Article XIX of the Ueague of Nations)
covenant. providing for revision of
treaties by agreement, had been put
Into operation, as was contemplated
by friends of the covenant. instead
Of waiting until passions became so
exasperated that revision by agree
f1ent became impossible, we should
have avoided the crisis.
) Therefore for that omission all men,
bers of the League must bear their
responsibility. am not here to
apportion blame among them. The
position We had to face in July was
q deadlock. Negotiations had been
going on between the Czechoslovak
government and the Sudeten Germans
and there we're fears that if the
deadlock were not speedily broken the
German government might presently
interfere. Before his majesty's gov
ernment there were three alternative
courses We might have adopted:
Either We could have threatened
to go to war with Germany if she
attacked Czechoslovakia; or We could
have stood aside and allowed mat
ters to take their course; or, finally,
We could attempt to find a peaceful
settlement by way OF mediation.
Third Course Taken.
The first of these courses was re-
tected We had no treaty liabilities to
Czechoslovakia. We had always re-
fused to accept any such obligations
and indeed this country, which does
not readily resort to war. would not
have followed us il We had tried to
lead it into war to prevent minority
from obtaining autonomy or even
from choosing to pass under some
other government.
The second alternative was also
fepugnant. However far this territory
may be from Europe, a spark there
might give rise to a general conflagra-
tion. We felt it our duty to do every
thing in our power to help the con-
tending parties come to an agree
ment.
We addressed ourselves to the third
course-the task of mediation. We
l1elt that the object was good enough
to justify the risk.
Runciman Is Praised.
And when Lord Runciman had ex-
pressed his willingness to undertake
our mission. We were happy to think
we had secured mediator of long ex-
perience, of Well-known qualities of
flrmness, tact and sympathy, and one
that gave us the best hopes Of success.
That Lord Runciman did not succeed
Is no fault of his.
We, and indeed all Europe, must
ever be grateful to him and his staff
for their long and exhausting efforts
on the behalf of peace. in course of
which they gained the esteem and con-
fdence of both sides.
On the 2lst of September, Lord
Runciman addressed to me letter re-
porting the result of his mission. That
letter is printed in the white paper,
but may conveniently mention some
Of the salient points of the story.
On the 7th of June, the Sudeten
German party had put forward Ger
tain proposals which embodied eight
points of Herr Henlein's speech at
Carlsbad on the oath of April. The
CZechoslovakian government, on their
side, had embodied their proposals in
their draft Of a nationality statute,
language bill, and administrative re-
form bill. At the middle of August,
1t had become clear to Lord Runciman