The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News. The Echo and The Sun. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1935. BRITAIN AND THE LEAGUE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 302, 21 December 1935, Page 8

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

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1935. BRITAIN AND THE LEAGUE.

For the cause that lacks assistance. For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And t!>e good that ice can do.

"What is wanted by the nation, ,, wrote Mr. Winston Churchill recently, "is not the hubbub and excitement of Parliamentary drama, but the cool and profound deliberations of the council chamber." Although a keen critic of the Government, Mr. Churchill could not have anticipated that within six weeks there would bo a Parliamentary drama in which the public audience would intervene so vehemently that one of the principal and favourite actors would be obliged to leave the stage and resign from the company. He is to be replaced, and there is now an intermission, during which not enly the company, but the audience, have time for reflection. Their reflections are not likely to be comforting.

The candour of Mr. Baldwin and the manly spirit of Sir Samuel Iloare moved the House of Commons to reaffirm its confidence in the Government, and for that we may all be thankful. There is no alternative Government in sight. The Opposition might criticise the "peace" plan as imperialistic, but it could not deny that the plan might have brought about peace, though at a price the nation is not prepared to pay. By contrast, the course which the Opposition evidently favours would almost certainly lead to war, a Avar in which the brunt of the fighting would fall upon the British Navy, which the same Opposition is unwilling to strengthen. The Opposition wants forcible action while shuddering at the idea of force, and its irresponsibility helped to strengthen the Government in the critical debate.

But though the Government won a victory in the Commons, its influence in the country has been weakened. Sir Samuel Hoare, as he has explained, was pressed to go to Paris to attempt with M. Laval to reach a common basis for peace discussions. It was right that he should go, but why should he have agreed to proposals which lie now admits he disliked? The proposals were "the minimum basis upon which the French Government was prepared to proceed." But Sir Samuel, as the representative of a Government which had only recently been re-elected on the clear understanding that it would not agree to a peace which was inconsistent with the League Covenant, should also have laid down a "minimum basis." If he forgot it, his Government should have reminded him, but nothing said in the Commons debate served to remove the suspicion that unless the British public had given the reminder the Government would have pursued the "peace" plan, and pressed for its acceptance by the League.

Much was said in the debate about the past, but little about the more important future. Perhaps nothing can be said until the British public has had time to consider the facts. The public has vehemently proclaimed its faith in the collective system, but —has not that system broken down? "You cannot have 100 per cent collective security with only 5 per cent co-operation," said Sir Samuel Hoare. Britain has not had anything , like full co-opera,tion in applying , the League's economic sanctions, and effectual support of the proposed oil sanction has been refused at the outset. The Government, rightly, was- not prepared to take the responsibility alone. It knew the risks; the public obviously does not appreciate their gravity. The Government was elected to promote the cause of peace, not to enter an avenue that may lead to war, and it may yet be forced to inform the people that the issue lies between the abandonment of sanctions and their enforcement by coercive action. If faced with that dilemma the people must decide that collective security, which no other people has at heart, is far too costly if its price is a European war.