FOREIGN POLICY OF BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22595, 28 December 1938, Page 9

FOREIGN POLICY OF BRITAIN

■ i ii- i- up LOW’S REPLY TO CRITICISM

“THE EMPIRE AND I FORESAW . .

(TBOU OtJB OW* COEBSSPOKDEirr.)

LONDON. October 24,

David Low, the famous New Zealand cartoonist, and member of the staff of the “Evening Standard,” one of the Beaverbrook group of newspapers, and Peter Howard, political correspondent of the “Sunday Express,” another of the Beaverbrook group, have been writing about each other in the “Sunday Express.” Howard criticised Low’s attitude towards the Empire. Low replied with the following letter to the editor: —

“Sir, —Every cartoonist is used to being told by clever people what his cartoons mean, but Peter Howard s view (last week’s ‘Sunday Express) that I have ‘for a long, long time, many a weary month, attacked, opposed and bitterly condemned ' the British Empire’ raises my eyebrows. “Upon what cai’toons does he base this grotesque judgment? The files say that I have opposed only certain fatuous misconceptions of the Empire, such are lield by our Peter Howards. It looks as though someone is mixing up Empire Free Trade with the Empire itself and assuming that condemnation of the one is condemnation of the other. , . . . “I have opposed the former, ngnt enough—but then so have nine out of 10 responsible persons in the Empire. In this, as in other relevant matters, I seem to have been not the ravager of Empire, but its representative. “Long ago the Empire and I foresaw that, since Britain might not always be our reliable defence, our future might be precarious except in a friendly world and part of a larger aggregate. “Hence we (the Empire and I) eagerly supported the League of Nations, revision of treaties, appeasement, access to raw materials and whatnot (see the records—New Zealand, my birthplace, shows up particularly well here); and later; when these were frittered away, we urged Collective Security against the return of power politics. ‘Power politics and isolation are, naturally, poison to us. “Well, now we are back in power politics up to the neck, virtually isolated. Britain can’t defend its own door-step apparently, and the Empire and I are shaking like a jelly—it with apprehension, I with indignation.

“And Peter Howard is offended, it seems, because we won’t pretend that the ‘statesmen’ who ’ produced this prize hash are our heroic saviours.

“In fairness. I note that he has the decency—or is it the indecency?—to hint that he wants this only so that his friends may win a general election. That explains b'Jt does not excuse him.”