ISOLATION POLICY

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 63, 8 December 1936, Page 12

ISOLATION POLICY

Strength of Movement In Canada NATIONS AND LEAGUE Impressions of Mr. H. F. von Haast Some striking information on the Empire isolationist movement as he had-come into contact with it in the Dominion of Canada, and comments ou the implications of that point of view, were provided by Mr. H. F. von Haast. pro-chancellor of the University of New Zealand, in an interview . with i “The Dominion” yesterday on bis return from a trip abroad by the Awatea. Mr. von Haast said that at Winnipeg he had a conversation with an eminent K.C. there, who had been one of the leading isolationists at the Commonwealth Relations Conference of 1933. When conversations which had taken place three years before were the League of Nations over Abyssinia, resumed in the light of the failure of he found that the changed circumstances had only intensified the isolationist attitude. At that conference the solution of the continuance of the British Commonwealth of Nations was found in the fact that each of such nations was bound by flie Covenant of the League to carry out its obligations to the League, including that of preserving the integrity of, and the political Independence of..each of its members, a bond that to the minds of the isolationists was far more binding than any sense of kinship and mutual independence that might be expected from membership of the British Commonwealth. Obligations Repudiated. “Had I not already realised how strongly the isolationists had repudiated at Toronto any sort of obligation — either legal or mpral to the other units of the British Commonwealth, I should have been staggerdd when my friend remarked in 1936, almost as a matter of course. T fear that if the League of Nations has really failed, that means the end of the British Commonwealth of Nations.’ ” Mr. von Haast said. “I ventured mildly to suggest that the one existing League of Nations that was operating successfully .was the British Empire, and if the League failed there was all tlie greater necessity not merely for holding tlie Empire together,' but for bringing it into closer co-operation, especially in defence. That meant not only self-preservation, but tlie maintenance of liberty and the rule of law that was so seriously menaced all over the world.

“But it was useless." he added. "I could only hope that that sentiment of isolation was ‘words, words, words.’ that it was being belied by Canada’s defence preparations and could again be belied by Canada’s attitude when a crisis arose in which the British Empire or one of its members were to be threatened. “I commend to isolationists wherever they tniiy be situated, the words of LordMiiner. in 1919. recalled recently by Viscountess Milner: ‘lt is surely a most strange anomaly that tlie self-governing States of the British Empire, in joining tlie League, should have bound themselves b.v format ties to a number of foreign nations, when they have never hitherto been willing to enter into simitar obligations to one another.’ ” The danger of the situation in Europe while he was there was obvious, Mr. von Haast said—-sb obvious that practically alt parties in Great Britain realised the necessity of rearmament and in particular tlie building up of the air force and the navy to give adequate protection in case of war. Must Be Arrested. 1 “It was being realised that if the British Empire is to continue, the reaction after the war that led to the centrifugal movement toward dissolution must be arrested and some organisation created which will ensure adequate equipment for mutual defence in time of peace and provide machinery for prompt unity of action in time of war,” he continued. “Great Britain is playing her part. It is notv up to the Dominions to do theirs. If New Zealand lose her independence, for instance, what will become of her ‘New Deal’? And a ‘New Deal’ is badly wanted for England: far greater even than the extensive programme that the Government is endeavouring to carry out. . “From Italy and Germany the British Empire has much to learn—the necessity for so training and disciplining the. entire population that it may be fit either for peace or war and each citizen given, by practical experience, some idea of the value of manual labour. The figures of the numbers of recruits for the navy rejected in Great Britain for unfitness are striking compared to those in Germany, especially remembering the effect during the war and since of malnutrition upon subsequent generations.” Further, there was the lesson that New Zealand needed so badly to learn from both the despotisms; that was. that while the State was the protector of the citizen, tlie citizen must be more than a mere parasite and hangers-on of the State. Then there was tlie necessity for encouraging a reversion to the old ideas of reproduction of the species. Tlie falling birth-rate not only in the British Empire but in almost all European countries compared with the fertility in the East —even if it was now at its peak and likely to join in the general tendency to fall—must give every thinker who took a long view great anxiety for tlie future not only of isolated countries like Australia and -New Zealand but of the European races generally. Filling Vacant Spaces. Finally there was the necessity for filling up tlie vacant spaces of the Empire which obviously could not remain white if there was insufficient white material forthcoming to occupy those lands carrying a mere handful Again, the matter was urgent. “We must give up lite idea of keeping our population all-British and welcome every white race that wilt provide good colonists who will amalgamate with their fellow-citizens of their adopted country and give their allegiance to it.” Mr. von Haast declared. “Our choice is not between keeping on our own high standard of living and not having some diminution by an influx of otiter Europeans, but between a European standard and an Asiatic standard. “By all means let us give all our own citizens the highest comfort that is possible, but do not let us pursue the ideal in a fool’s paradise and neglect the precautions and find ourselves turned out of that paradise into a wilderness tinder Asiatic immigration and Asiatic conditions,” he concluded.