Britain’s Foreign Policy

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 302, 17 September 1936, Page 13

Britain’s Foreign Policy

Sir, —Mr- P. J. O'Regan has had a. great deal to say in disparagement Of the policy of British Governments—past and present—but he has not yet replied to the t 0 him your ' In that letter he was definitely asked •whS h 4 and. MS League of Nations Union friends accused the British Government of a volte-face , and, other things to their discredit because it did not go to the utmost lengths in opposing Italy oyer the Abyssinian affair. . Britain was the only natibh which was prepared to do anything in the least likely, to hinder Italy in its project; and while many people thought she had gone much further than the League of Nations Covenant seemed to contemplate any country could be expected to go, unilaterally, nevertheless some people accused the Government of not going far enough and of not sticking to its pledges. . ' Unless I have misunderstood Mr. O’Regan’s attitude, he is among those . who contend that Britain should have stopped Italy even to the extent of going to war. If in that interpretation lam correct I would again request from him a definite reply as to how he reconciles this bellicose attitude with his continual opposition to every move to bring the British military and naval and air forces to a strength somewhat in keeping with her position among the world Powers. Mr. O’Regan should have seen my letter because it was on the same page as one by your correspondent Anti-War, to which letter Mr. O’Regan refers at considerable length in your issue of September 10- Specifically.: We would like to know why he and his friends have consistently opposed all defence measures and preached disarmament for many years and yet over the Abyssinian affair blamed the British Government for not taking such coercive measures as would undoubtedly have landed us in war against KNOWLEDGE. Wellington, September 15.

gjr It lias been said that although God cannot alter the past, historians can, and Mr. O’Began, I feel, would be an adept at creating a past that never existed. No doubt he really believes that Lord Grey was an incompetent, insincere politician who was responsible more than anyone else for Britain’s entry into the Great War, but the arguments he has adduced have not altered m the least my own opinion which I believe is the right one. viz. that Lord Grey was one of.the very best type of Englishmen, without any personal ambition save to do what he considered best in the interests of his country, and fully capable of occupying competently a position of great reSP With to Lord Grey’s responsibility for our entry into the war, whether there was an obligation on our part to France, legal or “of honour, is entirely beside the point. Lord Haldane in his autobiography states that on August 2 1914 it had become evident both to him and to Grey that Britain would almost certainly be unable to keep out of the war. Grey felt that our national interest Was bound up with the preservation of France, and Haldane thought (and who should know better than hep that once the German war party got into the saddle the war, as far as they were concerned, would be one for the domination of the world. In view of German pre-war diplomacy I do not see how any t other conclusion could be reached, but as Irish Liberal” says, it was the German invasion of Belgium that united Cabinet and public opinion bn the question of our entry into the war. , ... All I ask Mr. O’Regan is, would he like to see Germany in her present frame of mind in control of the Channel ports, and does he think that her frame otmind in 1914 was any less dangerous than it is now? If his answer is in the affirmative then the only possible conclusion is that it is a matter of indifference to him that the existence of England ana the Empire should be threatened. Mr. O’Regan also makes a slighting reference to Lord Haldane. I defy any fair-minded man to read the autobiograph of that great man once, twice, or thrice, and still to speak of him in slighting terms. —I am. ete., Wellington, September 16.