Evening star., 1939-07-22

France hdUe giDen pledges to
defend Poland, Rumania. Greece
and Turkey, but reports haze
been heard that Prime Minister
Chamberlain intends to reuiue
dppeaSement policy.
BY the Associated Press.
LONDON, July 22.-The British
foreign Office spoke out Indignantly
today about what it called fan
tastic and irresponsible talk" of an
impending broad agreement with
Germany to save European peace.
1t denied there were official ne
gotiations of any kind.
"All talk of large loan to Ger
many in return for partial disarma-
ment is absolutely unofficial and
purely academic and, moreover, is
harmful, because it may prejudice
the Anglo-Soviet talks" a foreign
office spokesman said.
Talk about a huge international
loan being granted to Germany to
aid the Reich's domestic economy
and settle European tension had
centered about the visit here of
Dr.. Helmuth Wohlthat, German
trade ambassador. He conferred
recently with Sir Horace Wilson,
permanent secretary to the treasury.
DR.. Wohlthat returned to Berlin
today and denied having conducted
any negotiations for a general loan
for Germany.
A scheme to grant Germany a
loan of $1,000, 100000 (S4,6SO O0O, ,O0O
and internationalize colonies in re-
turn for general disarmament and
supervision of Germanys arms in
dustry was said here to have been
started by r. S. Hudson, secretary
Of overseas trade.
Mr.. Hudson was believed to have
mentioned the scheme to a number
OF members of the government but
q foreign Office spokesman said this
morning:
The scheme is unknown to Lord
Halifax; it is unknown to Wilson;
it is unknown to the Prime Minister.
1t is fantastic"
Refugee Loan Discussed.
In his statement today the for
eign office spokesman said that DR..
Wohlthat and Wilson did not even
mention any plan for a general
settlement when they met, but he
said they did discuss a British loan
to help evacuate refugees from Ger
many.
Before any scheme for a general
settlement can be considered by the
British government" the spokes-
man said, there must be some evi-
dence of Germany's willingness to
change her policy.
For example. it is extremely un-
likely that Britain could ever ne
gotiate settlement as long as the
Germans are in Prague
This was reference to establish
ment of the German protectorate
over Bohemia and Moravia, heart of
the old Czech-Slovak republic, last
March. The Anglo-Soviet talks the
spokesman said might be harmed by
talk If loan to Germany are those,
now more than three months old, in
which Britain and France are seek
ing to bind Russia to a three
power mutual assistance pact.
Plan Given Chamberlain.
In spite of the spokeSman'S state
ment, it is known here that Prime
Minister Chamberlain has in fact
discussed plan to change Germany
from a wartime to a peace-time
economy
One leading diplomat in London
has for long time had plan for
q general settlement which included
a large loan to Germany and this
has been put before Mr.. Chamber
lain and is even said by this diplo-
mat to have the support of Field
Marshal Hermann Wilhelm Goering,
the Reich's economic plan chief
Regardless of what the British
government is doing officially, there
is no question about the fact that a
number of influential people in this
country believe Britain should come
forward at strategic time with a
comprehensive scheme for general
settlement.
Some argue, however, that now
is not the right time. These persons
say that any talk of appeasing
Germany will not only hamper the
talks for a mutual assistance pact
with Russia, but may even en-
courage Germany in what they call
her imperialistic and militaristic
policy.
Week of Optimism.
Various reports of preliminaries
to negotiation of Europes problems
followed a week of growing optimism
that they would be solved peace
fully.
Poland was standing firm against
Nazi pressure. but she faced the
possibility of an unpredictable
Soviet Russia joining hands with
Germany. A Soviet announcement
last night disclosed that trade talks
with Germany had been resumed
after sudden interruption of pre-
hminaries last January.
Resumption of the negotiations
after two previous failures was
viewed as holding disturbing DOS
(See LONDON, Page A-30