"REARMAMENT MADE INEVITABLE"

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22197, 14 September 1937, Page 9

"REARMAMENT MADE INEVITABLE"

TRADES UNION CONGRESS IN BRITAIN CHANGE IN INTERNATIONAL SITUATION lUiimslJ OFFICIAL WTRELEsS.; RUGBY, September 11. The "Daily Herald" reports at length the almost unanimous approval by the Traded Union Congress of the statement on international policy and defence prepared by the National Council of Labour. Political opponents have naturally not been able to resist making some play with what "The Times" calls "going back to facts," and "coming down from the clouds on to more solid facts." However, through the patronage of political criticism and pique, and the prim ness it provokes in pro-Labour circles, there may be seen a serious and common realisation that the decision of the Trade Union Congress, which it is considered certain will be endorsed bv the Labour Party Conference next month, represents an important manifestation of the national will and the determination that Britain shall be equipped adequately to discharge her responsibilities for peace and war. The "Daily Herald" says editorially: "The approval of the statement by the unions connotes recognition that the long-established foreign policy of Labour requires a different attitude to national defence, not because the policy has changed, but because the international situation has changed. Opposition to rearmament is withdrawn because Labour in fact believes that Fascist aggression has made British rearmament inevitable."