RECONCILIATION IN EUROPE

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21990, 14 January 1937, Page 9

RECONCILIATION IN EUROPE

MR EDEN DISCUSSES DANGERS TO PEACE ft DOMESTIC AFFAIRS OF OTHER COUNTRIES i BRITAIN’S POLICY OF NOT j INTERFERING 1 i ’ 1 (BRITISH OFFICIAL VMHELESS.) ' (Received January 13, 7.5 p.m.) RUGBY, January 13. \ In a speech at a dinner given by the Foreign Press Association in ; London, the Foreign Secretary (Mr ; R. A. Eden) referred to Herr Hitler’s . statement in Berlin at the reception to the diplomatic corps. He declared that his Majesty’s Government warmly reciprocated the senti- ; ment the German Chancellor expressed about understanding and reconciliation among the ..nations. “Surely the world is not so bankrupt that it can find no way of giving practical force to that which it seems is the common aim of us all,” said Mr Eden. “That at any rate must be the task to which we must devote ourselves in the coming year, and for the people of this country, I can assure you that it is a lask* to which they will bend their most earnest and united endeavours.” If that task were to be , accomplished, both political and economic appeasement was necessary. The allusion to the danger of economic distress to peace brought Mr Eden to the question of rearmament. “We in this country,” he said, “are now engaged in rearmament on a considerable, indeed, a formidable scale. That rearmament is gathering momentum. In time it must impose a strain on our national finances and national prosperity, as it is already doing elsewhere. Yet no other policy was open to us in a rapidly rearming world. The British nation has no desire to spend money on armaments. Yet let there be no mistake. In the existing conditions they can and, if need be, will show as stubborn a determination as any other nation in the re-equipment which they regard as vital to their national safety; but that is not the road we wish to travel. There is a better way. We definitely prefer butter to guns, and are prepared to do our best, by economic co-operation and by working for European appeasement, to secure that others have butter, too, in a world which has no need for guns.” Spain’s Choice Mr Eden spoke of the many disturbing, even menacing, factors which were to be found in Europe at the opening of the New Year. There was the situation in Spain, on which the British views were well known. “We are a democratic country,” he said. “We believe it is for the inhabitants of any country to decide what system of government they prefer. We wisn to see imposed no system of government, either our own or any other, on the Spanish people. We believe that any such effort would be unjustified,, and even were it to succeed, could bring no lasting peace. For that reason we have discouraged, and shall, so far as lies in our power, continue to discourage, any foreign intervention. I know that some believe that as the outcome of the civil war Spain inevitably must have a Government either fascist or com*munist. That is not jour belief. On the contrary, we believe that neither of t these forms of government being indigenous to Spain, neither is likely to endure. Spain will in time evolve her own Spanish form of government. The less foreigners interfere the shorter that time will be.” Britain did not desire to impose her ‘ institutions where they were unwanted: but equally she would not allow them to be uprooted here. “We do not compel men to serve their country in time of peace. Nelson’s signal: ‘England Expects,’ put once and for all our attitude. England expects, she does not compel.” England was moving one country away from another. , There was no country to which she would not willingly move if' she and that country could assist in relaxing the general strain. She desired the circle of collaborators to be as wide as possible. The did not believe in conflict but in co-operation. Less Tendency to Blocs Mr Eden said he thought he discerned signs that the tendency to divide Europe into rival ideologies—a tendency against which the whole moral and political weight of the British people, and, he believed, of all the English-speaking world would be thrown —was diminishing, and he claimed the recent joint British and Italian declaration on the Mediterranean, which was directed against no other country, as a contribution to that process. “Democracy is a slow and steady growth, to which men of all sorts and conditions throughout many generations have made their contributions,” he said. “We are told that it is not heroic, and that Europe is now entering on an heroic age. By all means let us have heroism; but let us regard Euroi i as a land for heroes to live in, not merely to die in. Let us not confuse heroism and heroics. Let us seek that quieter heroism which is none the less real because it is restrained, which is more generous because it can see the qualities, heroism, and willingness for self-sacrifice in people of every race •md creed, and which regards co-operation with all races and creeds as essential to the general well-being.” In conclusion, Mr Eden made an appeal for the recognition of the independence of nations by an increase in international understanding, by free cooperation between peoples, and by a reduction of the barriers hampering international trade and intercourse. “By a genuine attempt to restrain our sentiments, however deep and strong they may be, in favour of this or that ideology we can better the international situation, and increase the world’s prosperity and happiness. On the other if we withdraw within ourselves, increase our individual isolation, if we continue to pile up armaments to the utmost of our economic strength and beyond ’ it, we shall perpetuate the evils from which we suffer to-day, and bring the world nearer to an even greater disaster than that from which it is only just beginning to recover. There may have been a time when nations could be independent and self-sufficing, but

that day is long past. No nation today can prosper on the ruin of another. If we base our policies on this fundamental fact we shall have gone far to find a solution of the seemingly insoluble problems confronting mankind.” WORK OF PEACE ECONOMICS AS WELL AS POLITICS (Received January 13, 8,30 p.m.) LONDON, January 13. “The Times,” in a leading article, summarising Mr Eden’s speech, declares that Britain will heartily join his welcome to Herr Hitler’s New Year declaration and will echo Mr Eden’s and Herr Hitler’s emphasis on the truth that the work of peace must be two-handed, it must be a labour of economics as much as politics.'