MR EDEN’S RESIGNATION

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22335, 24 February 1938, Page 7

MR EDEN’S RESIGNATION

TO THE EDITOR 6 1 f’BE Sir, —Regarding the lamentable resignation of thC British Foreign Secretary' Mr R. A. Eden, I am sure your readers will agree that it . Was Mr Chamberlain WHO put Mr Edeh in the impossible position in which he folind HirtiSelf. By his interference in foreign affairs; trying to carry out His Own polity Of a permanent AngjoItalian agreement; our, wonderful “peace at any . price” Prime Minister has brought about this event which will no doubt cost him thousands of votes at the next gefieral election, judging from the temper- ..of the crOWd which demonstrated in DOWnihg street on February 20. I am aISO sure that your readers must See how vCfy weak Mr Chdfnberlain is in attempting to cultivate The friendship of Mussolini at. any.price (eyen at the price of the ablest Foreign Secretary Britain has ever produced). Recent events iri Austria show only tOo clearly how far Italy i$ to be trusted. It is a great pity that the most promising political career of the last dOcade thust be abandoned because an interfering Prime Minister takes it on his own responsibility to commit his Government to obligations which were absolutely contrary to his Foreign Minister’s expressed policy.—Yours etC " '• R. LEWIS. February 22, 1938.

• ro thb editor o f rate press. Sir, —Your lucid leading article or Mr Eden’s resignation in “The Press’ to-day must strike every student of for§igrt affairs as being, particularly pertinent and apposite. There is one aspect of Mr Eden’s resignation, however, which is now perfectly obvious. He was groomed for an impossible task, as a champion for League of Natiofis adherents in the British electorates to follow to the polls. Since the opening of this decade the British policy to avoid War has not bCeh the equivalent Of a policy to enforce peace, although in the words of a prominent British statesman, “Dfemocfacy consists in standing up to dictators.” Its first major oUtCrop was the British opposition to sanctions ip Manchuria, which attitude discredited the whole mechanism of collective security established by the League and led to Lloyd George describing the then Foreign Secretary, Sir John Simon, as having “sat on the fence sc long that the iron had entered his souh” If the protectors of the existing order had not then given intimations that they would not fight if they could avoid it. the League’s history might have feeeri considerably .changed; Britain Violated Tfeaty of Versailles When she signed with Germany a irdaty permitting Germany to reconstruct Hef riavy Up to 35 per cept of the rtaVal strength of the British Commonwealth. Since then British diplomatic victories have only beer victories over her friends, but altqbUgh Mr Eden fought for sanctions in Abyssinia, the die had already been cast, and perhaps the vision of shadows ricfOss the NOtth sea played its part. Whatever political party produced Mr Eden, perhaps the brightest star at Whitehall fOf decades he once immersed iri fofeigh affairs, developed a clear vision. I have no doubt he realised that the Loyalists in Spam were not only fighting for Democracy but indirectly for the life .heespfour Empire. NdW that He is rejected what does Britain face? Hitler goes home; he also goes further—along the old Berlin to Bagdad route. The Swiss GOvferhriient HaS already served ndticb that the League cannot remain at Geneva if it Idses its lirllVersal character. The Rome-Berlin axis has now brought Rumania, Yugoslavia, and Poland under its influence and its technique of dipldltiafcy. The prfesfeiit situation is a lesson of the contradictions of capitalism ds affecting social progress;—YOurs, etc;, ’g b S February 1938.