THE EMPIRE AND THE RISK OF WAR

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 130, 26 February 1937, Page 16

THE EMPIRE AND THE RISK OF WAR

Danger of Crusading Psychology

The position of the British Empire in relation to world problems was dis-' cussed by Professor S. Brodetzky, University of Leeds, in an address on “The British Empire and the League of Nations” in London recently. Professor Brodetzky said the relationship between the British Empire and the League of Nations was to-day of fundamental importance to the world. If there was a next war it would not be the cause of the war which would bring Great Britain into it, but the very existence of a state of war. No country like Britain with interests in every continent and every ocean could remain unaffected by war in any part of the world. Nobody was mad enough to suggest that the British Empire could adopt a policy of isolation. With regard to Spain, few of them were thinking of the conflict iu relation to the internal civil war but in relation to the social problem of Communism versus Fascism. The younger generation were very much inclined to what might be called the crusading psychology of the Middle Ages. They were prepared to take up flags and to go to I fight, putting on the flags the word "Excelsior” either iu the language of Germany or Russia. The greatest danger to humanity was this psychology of crusades between opposing social theories. It was dangerous to allow this psychology to spread too widely. The peace of the world would not be produced by a crusade of one or other social theory, even if one or other was successful.