DANEGELD

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22345, 8 March 1938, Page 8

DANEGELD

IO IH6 BDITOIi OF TUB I'ttfcS*. Sir—The state of Britain in the political field to-day shows the deterioration of the leadership of the Empire which has taken place in recent years so far as the British Parliament is concerned. We have to go back a thousand years to find an analogous case, and that was the payment of tribute to the Danish pirates, to induce them to refrain from attacks on the English coasts. "The British Government to-day is examining the German claim for colonies to ascertain what can be done in the matter," in other words, to find out the lowest sum in the way of "Danegeld" that Germany will accept. A lot of humbug about maintaining peace, etc. is being dished out as a sedative to the public, but when stripped of unrealities, the fact as mentioned above is quite clear as a reality. What Anally put an end to the Danish incursions was the increased fighting strength of the English people. When a people seek to buy off a threatened invasion, they are inviting destruction, and history shows that it invariably arrives, as the Saxons found when they refused to continue paying tribute, and after being soundly trounced by I. the Danes, had to accept a Danish king as their ruler.

Some time ago you were good enough to print a letter of mine, in which, dealing with the state of the political mind at Home, I said that with the practical dissolution of the Liberal Party, the former Liberals joined either the Conservative Party or the Labour Party according to the bias of their mind, and that this had a deteriorating effect on both these parties. Mr Baldwin and Mr Neville Chamberlain, actually both had Liberal and not Conservative minds, and it has always been the Conservative mind that has been relied on by the British Empire to see it through its conflicts with others. It almost sems that there is only one remaining Conservative statesman left in the House of Commons, and that is Mr Winston Churchill.

The Ottawa Agreement lost to Britain that recognition of her sense of fair play in the economic field which had given her world leadership, and Manchuria, Abyssinia, and Spain have had the same effect in the political one. Perhaps the most striking testimony to the truth of this is the going over to the Fascist side of the South American Republics. They followed Britain into the last war; in another some, no doubt, will remain neutral, but others will be active enemies, and Britain must fight alone. Messrs Baldwin and Chamberlain had, as I have said, the business, or Liberal mind, so they were bound to fail as legislators. An Empire cannot be run by applying accepted business methods. Legislation must have an ethical basis to be of value. Business has no such ethical basis; the successful businessman can never be a statesman, however just and honourable he may be.—Yours, etc., GEO. SAGE. Governor's Bay, March 5, 1938.