NEWS OF THE WEEK A CLOSING passage, . in which
the Prime Minister in .171 his speech at Edinburgh last Friday, suggested that it was time another effort was made to remove international fears and suspicions was a suitable .accompaniment to the announcement, made the same day, that Lord :Halifaic had accepted an invitation to visit. Hunting Exhibition in Berlin and would, while in the German capital, avail himself of the opportunity of informal conversations with Herr Hitler and ,various of his Ministers. The success of the visit was immediately imperilled by irresponsible articles in certain.organs of the Press. of .both, countries, but Lord. Halifax duly _arrived in .Berlin ;on Wednesday and lunched on that day ,with the _German Foreign Minister. Gratuitous questioni in the House of Comnions as to the relations between the Lord Privy Seal: and the British Ambassador in Berlin might have been spaied. if it had been realised that Lord Halifax was to be Sir Nevile Henderson's guest. There is nothing that is. not came straightforward about the visit. The invitation-. carde to Lord Halifax, as a sportsman, not as a politician,to visit the Hunting Exhibition, and he happens to be admirably equipped to make the kind of purely informal contact with German Ministers which would be possible neither for a Foreign Setteta or -a Prime Minister. Con- siderable Secretaryharin may be ddne by encouraging excessive expe'ctatiOns'abOut the rdults of .Lord Halifax's ConVerSations. - The main result hoped fOr is an-improvement of the general atmosphere. Mid' the danonstration -that this country and Germany are genuinely attempting to understand each other's - - -
