Source Extract: from the editorial, Kilmarnock Standard, 19 March 1938.

Austria is no longer an independent country. It is one of the States that comprise Germany. It was natural and inevitable that such a union should occur sooner or later. Even in the Treaty of Versailles the possibility of it was foreseen . . . Strictly speaking, there is no good reason for disapproving the union of Germany and Austria, but there is solid ground for disapproving Germany's method of annexation.

[War mongers say that] Germany's next step . . . will be to annex Czecho-Slovakia . . . Czecho-Slovakia as a so-called nation fails to enlist British sympathies. It is not a nation at all. It is an ill-sorted gathering of peoples, thrown together by the makers of the Treaty of Versailles . . . There could be no more ironic tragedy than that we should be involved in war for the sake of preserving the unwarrantable frontiers of Czecho-Slovakia .

Even in the face of all that has passed, why should it be assumed that Germany and Italy are potential enemies? It is worthwhile now-it is more desirable than ever before to try to secure an understanding with these two countries. It is the lack of understanding between nations that breeds wars. Knowing that, it is surely the duty of the Cabinet, not to breathe fire and slaughter (as some would now have them do), but patiently and with goodwill to seek to find some path that leads to fuller mutual understanding and thus to . . . peace.