NEWS OF THE WEEK
WITH Poland temporarily expunged from the map of Europe and a relative lull prevailing in the West interest centres for the moment in the diplomatic stage. Four notable speeches, those of Mr. Churchill, Mr. Chamberlain, M. Daladier and Lord Halifax (the order is chronological) have reaffirmed in restrained but resolute language the determination to prosecute the war with all the energies and resources of their respective countries till a peace can be attained which, in the Foreign Secretary's words, " will secure conditions under which the rule of violence no longer operates and the pledged word of Governments may again be held worthy of honourable trust." Elsewhere it is sig- nificant that, in spite of the visit Count Ciano was invited to make to Berlin, Italy appears increasingly disinclined to take any initiative in the matter of peace plans, still more in any military action ; that Japan has, according to apparently credible report, withdrawn from the Anti-Comintern Pact ; and that Turkey as well as the United States has announced that she does not recognise the partition of Poland. The resurrection of that unhappy country has begun with the constitution in Paris of a new Polish Government, with M. Raczkiewicz as President, General Sikorski as Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief, and M. Zaleski once more Foreign Minister.
