PEACE BULWARK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 261, 4 November 1933, Page 9

PEACE BULWARK.

BRITAIN IN EUROPE. Strength of the League and Locarno Pact. INTERNATIONAL SITUATION. (British Official Wireless.) (Received 2.00 p.m.) RUGBY, November 3.

Referring to the European situation during the course of a speech in the Skipton (Yorkshire) by-election campaign, the Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Captain K. A. Eden, said .it was not surprising that Germany's withdrawal from the Disarmament Conference and the League of Nations had caused some concern and a measure of uneasiness in Europe, but there was no occasion for scare-mongering.

He proceeded to defend the League against certain criticisms of the Locarno Agreement, which he described as one of the most effective instruments for the peace of Western Europe. The main instrument in that settlement is the treaty of mutual guarantee. This is not an alliance of Britain and France against Germany—far from it.

It is an inclusive agreement to which Germany, Belgium, France, Britain and Italy are all parties. By this treaty of mutual guarantee, the signatory Powers severally and collectively guaranteed the territorial "status quo," resulting from the frontiers between Germany and Belgium and Germany and France, also the inviolability of those frontiers and tiie demilitarisation of the Rhineland.

The treaty was interwoven with the machinery of the League. With one exception decisions to be taken under it must be taken by the Council of the League. The Council could take no decision except by a unanimous vote. Since Britain was a permanent member of the Council, it was clear that no decision could be taken without British assent. The only exception to this governing condition was in the event of a flagrant violation of the undertaking not to go to war or of the demilitarisation of the Rhineland zone by one of the parties. Britain would be bound to go immediately to the help of the injured party, if satisfied that the violation constituted an unprovoked act of aggression, and that immediate action was necessary. .

However, Britain would be the sole judge as to whether this obligation became applicable.

Tho Treaty of Locarno, he went on, contained no provision under which any of the parties could withdraw from it. Some critics had suggested that if such a course were possible, Britain would be less likely to be involved in any European war.

The very opposite was the truth. "We shall not avoid another war by saying that in no circumstances shall we go to the aid of a Power unjustly attacked. Britain is still a great Power, and has the responsibilities of a great Power. If we fear to discharge those responsibilities we shall invite the disaster which will follow.

"A policy of .isolation today is a policy of folly. With the development of air power, England has ceased to be an island. Even if we would wish to go back upon our word we cannot, but, of course, there is no question of our doing so."