BRITAIN'S CHOICE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 263, 7 November 1939, Page 6

BRITAIN'S CHOICE.

FACTORS ANALYSED.

REJECTION Of SICKLY PEACE.

BACK TO 300- * EAR-OLD POMCT. 1 Insolence of Japanese sentries in removing the pants of British citizens in the Orient was the straw that broke the back' of British public opinion so far as its foreign policy was concerned — and was one of the factors that led tc World War 11. t c . This was the inference drawn by nan Francisco Commonwealth Club members recently as they listened to Dr. Hubert Phillips, Fresno State College educator, speak on British foreign policy of past, present and future. Four big events since 1930 have caused England to revert to a foreign poliev current 300 years ago, Dr. Phillips said.i They were:— (1) Italy's threat to cut the British lifeline to India. (2) The British Governments nonintervention policy in Spain. (3) Munich and its immediate consequences. (4 1 Loss of face and pants in the Orient. Polish Guarantee. The* crreat siep marking (lie change in foreign policy had been taken shortly before when England fur the first time in modern history and for the second time since she became a world power, single-handed guaranteed t lie territorial integrity of a nation —Poland, he said. As to the future, Dr. Phillips made these predictions, qualified by unexpected possible changes in the world I picture:—

(1) England will liquidate her Far Eastern possessions. (2) She will restore British prestige in the Near East.

(:i) She will separate the Rome-Berlin axis.

(4) She will reject any offer of peace which does not guarantee greater safety than the German Government, in view ol past experience, can extend. In short. England thinks war now is preferable to prolongation of a sick and insecure peace.

Ail apt historical comparison was drawn by Dr. Phillips in connection with the latter.

Napoleon Recalled.

'"Tn ISO 7 Napoleon met Czar Alexander of Russia on a raft in the middle of the Niemen River and there handed the latter peace terms for transmission to England,'' he said. "These were rejected for the same reason Hitler's present offer will be rejected."

Four years ago Dr. Phillips addressed the Commonwealth Club on "'Britain— the Bulwark of Democracy."

"What I said then still holds,"' he said. "The term "Perfidious Albion' was coined to cover immediate events, not long-range policies.

"Too often certain large newspaper chains in this country have pictured England as a rapacious monster about to swallow the world. I still say no other flag, save our own guarantees to those who live beneath it as much freedom, as much security or as many human rights as the Union Jack."