Expansion of Britain’s huge rearmament program was promised by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain tonight to reinforce his veiled warning against any attempt by Chancellor Adolf Hitler to extend his Austrian coup.
Harried by opposition spokesmen in the House of Commons, Chamberlain gave his Government a clean bill of health as regards Austria, resignedly observing that war alone could have swerved the week-end’s course of events.
As it was, Chamberlain admitted that the Reich’s forceful envelopment of Austria constituted a “profound shock to all those interested in the preservation of European peace.” He hinted it may have erased all hopes of separate anglo-German and anglo-Italian agreements when he said:
“It follows that what has passed cannot fail to prejudice the hope of his Majesty’s Government of removing misunderstandings between nations and promoting international cooperation.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.