The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo and The Sun. SATURDAY, MAY 25, 1935. BRITAIN AND EUROPE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 122, 25 May 1935, Page 8

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo and The Sun.

SATURDAY, MAY 25, 1935. BRITAIN AND EUROPE.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in '.he distance, And th* good that toe cuu dc

The famous cartoonist from New Zealand whom Mr. F. W. Doidge, also from Now Zealand, had the privilege of employing in London, onee drew a cartoon depicting, the employer of both of them, Lord Beaverbrook, in an open boat towing Britain further into the Atlantic, away from the complications of Europe. Mr. Doidge has'now returned to New Zealand, and marked his return by an ingenious and very vigorous exposition of the Beaverbrook policy of removal. Britain must repudiate the Locarno Pact, leave the League (this is implied, though, not actually stated), turn her back on Europe, develop the Empire, and keep her sword sharp and her powder dry. There are some Englishmen' to whom such a policy makes a strong appeal,. They are sick of European , quarrels. They look back to a war in which Britain poured out her lives and her treasure, but to-day sees Europe arming and quarrelling as bfef ore. Let us, they say, cut adrift from this mess and concentrate our attention on a newer and cleaner world — the vast and largely undeveloped estate over which the British Flag flies.

It is a programme that has certain attractions, but the clean cut Mr. Doidge proposes, though it may look easy to some, is not a practicable policy. There have long been such extremes of thought in Britain. Before Joseph Chamberlain's day Britain was far from realising the value of her oversea possessions. Even to-day there are many Englishmen whose minds are filled with foreign affairs to the exclusion of those of the Empire, or if they think of the Empire have in mind India and the Grown Colonies. Much has been done to develop the overseas estate, so that last year, for the first time, trade with the . Empire exceeded trade with "■ foreign countries.' But the other extreme is both perilous and in practice impossible. The truth is that Britain's position is unique. She faces Europe and she faces the United States, and she faces the Empire. She has to accommodate her policy to all three. Geographically she is one of the European system, but only partly, and politically she is in the. same position. Her interests forbid her to ignore European developments. Again and again she has fought to prevent Europe falling under the domination of one Power. She did so when ships were moved by the wind; she did so when steam was the motive power. Can she afford to be indifferent to European changes of power now that the air has been conquered 1 Europe is still the centre' of the civilised world. Events there haye reactions over the whole of the globe, and Britain has interests in every sea. In the eighteenth century, so Macaulay pointed out, a dispute about a European throne set red. men scalping, one another in the forests of America and white men fighting on the coasts of India. The reactions of the war of 1914 were much more immediate and widespread., What great Power can say with certainty that it can keep out of a future conflict? Britain has interests everywhere. Her trade connections are interwoven with the prosperity of all countries. The Empire is so far from being her only concern that roughly half Jher export trade is done with foreign lands.

Mr. Dpidge says war is "inevitable." That is a counsel of despair. If we go on saying that war is inevitable we shall almost certainly get war. It is not inevitable, and if the world is to save itself it must proceed on that conviction. Britain is pledged to the Locarno Pact and to the League. She is, indeed, the keystone of the League, and if that keystone dropped out, then there would be some good reason for despair. Desertion of Europe would be directly opposed to vital British interests, and it would involve Britain in the moral censure of mankind which Edward Grey rightly said she would have incurred had she not taken up the challenge in 1914. Mr. Doidge does well to remind us how unsatisfactory is the position of the Dominions, who are not pledged to the Locarno agreement, yet will be in a state of war if Britain takes up arms. This, however, is a matter, for the Dominions. As members of the League they must be prepared to take some responsibility for world affairs. In New Zealand the whole problem has received less attention than is its due. But the League, partial failure though it has been, remains the chief hope of peace; it can only function if the leading Powers remain members of it; and for Britain to leave it would be one of the tragic desertions of history.