London Letter BURYING SANCTIONS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 252, 21 July 1936, Page 8

London Letter BURYING SANCTIONS

The Future of Nations in the Mediterranean

(By J. A. Mulgan and G. S. Cox.) [Air Mail.] London, June 27. Sun poured down on England this week—it W as mid-summer by the calendar axd summer had come at last. Down at Wimbledon, the championships had begun; each year they become more and more a social event. In London, the King’s birthday and a colourful parade of the Guards. More and more visitors come over to London now—France is too expensive struggling against an over-valuated franc and the passing troubles of labour unrest; Italy has been almost a closed country during these last few months • Germany is England’s only serious competitor at the moment for tourist trade. And while the sun shines, everything in London and England generally seems very gay and prosperous—cars and well-dressed crowds in the streets, bands in the parks, plea-sure-boats on the river. (It is as well, perhaps, that Italy has not reciprocated with sanctions, for we should miss her organ-grinders and icecream merchants from the Embankment on these warm evenings.) As July runs on into August and the temperature goes on rising, London will lose all those who can afford to leave, but just at the moment the town enjoys its summer season. The Sick Man of Europe

If there was any interest in international affairs during these last few days, it centred round Turkey and the conference of Montreux. There, the Powers interested—with the exception of Italy—are discussing the refortification of the Dardanelles and the revision of the Treaty of Lausanne. In many ways these discussions seem a side-issue, and they hav e aroused little interest in England, where a tired public opin'on is turning restlessly over in an effort to know what foreign policy it should support; but there are many vague rumours circulating about events in the Mediterranean, and this conference may be more important than it seems.

New Zealand win not lightly forget the importance of the Dardanelles. Even after the war, in 1922, when the victorious Turkish nationalists drove back a demoralised Greek army, it was England with Dominion support that held up the Turks by a show of force from violating the neutrality of the straits. The “Chanak crisis" was Lloyd George’s last act of power; and if it did no other good, it at least showed the necessity for better communications between the different Governments of the Empire.

But many things have changed since then. Turkey is a good friend; Russia is the chief ally of France, round whom England’s foreign policy in Europe builds itself; and there is little need for dispute over the straits. What is more Important and what is, as yet, being only vaguely hinted at, is the relation of all these Powers in the Mediterranean to Italy. During these last few years. Italy has been pressing on Turkey along the coast of Asia Minor. She has strongly fortified the islands of the Dodecanese; there are well-substantiated and reliable reports that she is now supplying the Arabs in Palestine with arms; this week, in the House of Commons, questions were asked again as to what evidence the Government had last year of a threatened Italian attack on Egypt—and the questions have not yet been satlsfac torily answered. All this will perhaps tend to explain some of the tineasii eess which appears occasionally in England when her ‘•problems of the Mediterranean” are being discussed: and it can be safely assumed that more than the mere published discussions are now proceeding at Montreux.. The Peasants’ Revolt

London saw a strange spectacle on Wednesday of this week—-five thousand farmers with their wives and families marched singing and shouting and carrying banners through the West End, from Victoria to Hyde Park, to protest against the Tithe Bill, it was a perfect day for haymakii g. but they chose instead to come to London to make their protest. Rural England had uot invaded London in the same way since the days of Jack Cade. Huge cheering crowds liied the streets and the procession had all the enthusiasm of a march of triumph; there were speeches in Hyde Park, and then a deputation waited on the Prime Minister at Downing Street, only to find that he had a dinner engagement.

The English farmer is a rather different man from his New Zealand anti-type. The rules of his occupation seem more firmly established —certainly the methods he employs tend to be a little more conservative; he is probably rather less independent, at’d it takes more to rouse him to protest. It is certainly difficult to imagine a New Zealand farmer paying tithes—as well as rent—under an antiquated law that was laid down in the time of Queen Anne for the support of the Church. Now protests against tithes have become a regular English institution. Hardly a week goes by with out ‘Queen Anne being burned in effigy at some local sale “n distrained stock. This year it was hoped that the Gov eminent would remedy some of the in justices of the system with the Tithe Bill, but at the last moment, it was defeated by back-bench Conservative members and, as it stands w, sixty years must pass before the main abuses will be done away with. The English farmer has a very general sympathy In many the tithes which he has to pay are not heavy, but it is felt to be unfair tba’ he should bear the main charge of supporting the established Church—as well as a great many Ox ford and abridge Colleges—and the tithe has the gr< disadvantage of i>t varying according to changes in prices, and conditions. Sooner or later this agitation is bound to be effective, anti the farmer ' 'll not have made his protest in vain. Sayings of the Week

England and Parliament were mainly occupied in burying sanctions, but even this melancholy operation had its brighter moments. For example. Major Attlee. Leader of the Opposition: “If Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton. Abyssinia was lost on the playing fields of Harrow.” (Both Mr Baldwin and Sir Samuel Honre were at Harrow.) And again, of Mr. Anthony Eden. “What shall it profit a man if he gaits the whole world and loses the old school tie?” But for the most part it was a sad affair, and when Mr. Eden and Halle Selassie left for Geneva to-day—travelling separately —they closed a chapter in the history of this country’s foreign policy.