“SMASHING THE LEAGUE”

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21814, 20 June 1936, Page 15

“SMASHING THE LEAGUE”

POLICY ATTACKED BY MR LLOYD GEORGE

INTERNATIONAL ANARCHY

PROPHESIED

(Received June 19, 12.50 p.m.)

LONDON, June 18

Speaking in the House of Commons during the sanctions debate Mr Lloyd George said that if the Government was going to Geneva to say that it was beaten, that the league had failed, and that it did not propose further sanctions, there was an end of the authority of the league, Mr Eden’s predecessor, Sir Samuel Hoare, had had the decency to. resign when his policy was thrown over. Mr Lloyd George continued that he had been in the House for nearly half a century, and never before had he heard a British Minister holding the next most important position to the Prime Minister say that Britain was beaten. “’There will be an international anarchy the moment that this is known,” he said. It was no use Mr Eden saying that he was going to Geneva to reconstruct or reform the league. No nation had refused to uphold sanctions. The ranks of the league were not broken.

“Mr Eden is going to Geneva to break them and to smash the league,” said Mr Lloyd George. “I (wish he had left it to somebody else. I Abyssinia has not been conquered.” Mr Lloyd George asked France’s attitude, and Mr Eden replied that the new French Government had said it was not prepared to take the initiative in raising sanctions. It was anxious to work with Britain. The French Government had not given an indication of its desire to maintain sanctions, or that it would support further sanctions. Mr Lloyd George proceeded: “British prestige abroad was never lower. Fifty nations will never trust this crowd again. To-night we have had a cowardly surrender, and there are the cowards.” Mr Lloyd George stood pointing at the Ministers.

Mr Lloyd George declared in ringing tones that the danger of war was less now than when sanctions were imposed. The fleet then was unprepared and ill equipped. Moreover, France’s attitude, under which M. Laval was hostile to sanctions, had now changed. Spain’s attitude was also different. ‘The whole of the Mediterrnean powers, except Italy, were ready to support you,” he said, “yet you are running away.”

The Government’s watchword was “We have failed, therefore we have

funked,” but why had Italy’s foreign trade dwindled by over half? If the increasing strain had been kept up for another year terms could have been made with Signor Mussolini.

“What is the Government’s policy for keeping peace?” asked Mr Lloyd George., “Is it to emasculate the League of Nations, to rely'on pacts, and in the words of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, ‘To limit the danger zone,’ and to mark out beforehand the potential enemy? Is it the policy of the Government to arm to the teeth in desperation, because it knows no other way out? As surely as night follows day, war .must follow that suicidal policy.”