HOUSE OF LORDS DEBATE

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21423, 15 March 1935, Page 11

HOUSE OF LORDS DEBATE

* ENDORSEMENT OF WHITE PAPER helpim; the cause of PEACE (united tress association—B7 electric TELEGKATU—COPS-RIGHT.) (Received March 14, 7.30 p.m.) LONDON, March 14. In the House of Lords, Lord Ponsonby initiated the defence debate, moving that the White Paper would increase international difficulties and competition in armaments, and weaken collective security, an inherent League Covenant. Lord Ponsonby said that people were justifiably alarmed lest this was only the beginning of a new policy of rearmament. It was driving the last nail in the coffin of the Disarmament Conference. Lord Reading said that Britain from the beginning had led the promotion of the pacification of the world, and had taken risks for this end which others had not taken. No nation in the world believed that the Government was in anywise imperilling peace, but the rearmament of Europe, while Britain had yearly reduced her armaments, created a new situation. Lord Lothian said that Herr Hitler himself had recently assured him personally that Germany was prepared to abolish air bombers altogether if everybody would do likewise. This formidable fact provided an opportunity for the success of the air convention. The Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. Cosmo Gordon Lang) said that if the White Paper alone represented the Government's policy, or meant the abandonment of the attempt to seek a general limitation of armaments, he would be troubled, but the critics should remember the Government's encouragement of regional agreements and mutual defence, and their earnest desire to bring Germany back to the League, without which general disarmament would be impossible. Those devoted to the League and the Disarmament Conference would not advance the cause by suggesting that the White Paper meant the abandonment of adherence to the League. Lord Hailsham, replying, said that support of the League and collective j security did not mean that Britain should render herself incapable of defence. The Government was proposing the minimum forces necessary to protect the country and the Empire. Lord Ponsonby's motion was negatived without a division.