Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 1925. DOMINIONS AND THE PACT

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 1, 1 July 1925, Page 4

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 1925. DOMINIONS AND THE PACT

Two or'three weeks ago the diplomatic correspondent of the " Daily Herald " denounced the proposed agreement of Great Britain with France and Germany for the purposes of mutual security as " a blood pact"—a description which the British Labour Party is j apparently prepared to, apply to any arrangement of more modest dimensions than the 'universal j blood pact which it hailed with in- I tense admiration in the Geneva Protocol. The " Daily Express," which Lord Beaverbrook appears to have wosked up to quite a frenzy of indignation against Mr. Chamberlain's policy, has done better still by declaring that it is nothing less than " a treaty of death " that j he is after. Unconsciously swept j by its indignation into verse in its first sentence, the "Express" says: Mr. Chamberlain's speech reveals the marked fact that the Dominions will be allowed to contract themselves out of the Pact. With or without the co-oper- | ation of the Dominions, the Government is to put .Britain's signature to a treaty of death./ Mrl Chamberlain is the first, Foreign Secretary to admit diplomatic disunity as a principle of Imperial policy. j ' . .'' " This," as Bottom would say, "is Ercles' vein," and it makes one feel quite sorry for Mr. Chamberlain. His father was the greatest Colonial Secretary that the Empire ever had, and by his enterprising and sympathetic administration gkve an unprecedented stimulus to the sense of Imperial unity in all its parts. If a degenerate son is about to undo his father's work and make disunity, weakness, and even death the watchword of his Imperial policy, his shame is all the greater. But if after allowing ourselves a breathing space 'in'which to recover from the shock of his critics' rhetoric, we examine the facts impartially, Mr. Austen Chamberlain is likely to appear not quite so unworthy a son of the great Colonial Secretary as we are asked to i believe. He has certainly not yet signed the Empire's death warrant, nor has anybody a right to say that he is about to do so until we know exactly what is going into the Pact. The general lines of Mr. Chamberlain's policy are nevertheless quite clear, and we have seen nothing in his published utterances to justify either the general invective of the " Daily Express " o? the specific absurdities which it attributes to; him. To.appreciate the position fully we must remember that Lord Beaverbrook ib out to kill the Pact. He thinks that Britain would be safer in complete isolation from the troubles :of Europe, and that the Pact will involve an entanglement which a policy more closely resembling the aloofness of America would avoid. Incidentally, what may be called the Americanising tendency of some of the Dominions in this respect—a tendency quite falsely ascribed to them all—provides .a convenient stick with which to beat the Foreign-Minister who ventures to take a different view. ; But, though the idea of promoting the peace of Europe by pledging Britain to the protection of France and Germany against one another's aggression may be wrong, it cannot be right., to attack Mr. Chamberlain with the arguments adduced by the "Daily Express," nor should the Dominions consent to serve as instruments for such a purpose. He will go advisedly into Europe, it says, though he knows the Empire never will. His view is that though France and Britain may be involved in war against Germany, or Germany and Britain may be involved in war against France, neither Canada, Australia, India, New Zealand, nor South Africa will be at war with anyone. It is only necessary to state the position to see the inherent absurdity, \ / We may all concur in accepting the last sentence. Mr, Chamberlain would be utterly unworthy of his high position if he had perpetrated any such nonsense. ; His statement as cabled waß,. however, quite unimpeachable, and merely shows that throughout his negotiations he has kept in close touch with the Dominions and fully recognised their new status in the Empire. The Dominions, he said, had been kept fully informed of all'proceedings by the British Government, and except New Zealand, which had expressed complete confidence in the British Government, with which it was content to leave the decision, the Dominions had not yet declared themselves^ but no Dominion could be committed except by its own Government, acting with the; support of its own Parliament. If there is any absurdity in the concluding clause, the fault lies not in Mr. Chamberlain, but in the position into which, under Ministers, from whoße high principles he is accused of having fallen away, Imperial relations* have drifted. It has long been! a commonplace with Canadian Liberals that Britain might be at war without involving Canada, and Sir Wilfrid Laurier referred complacently to the pbssu bility of Canada's warships remaining in harbour while the Mother Country was fighting. What was regarded as a painful heresy before the Great War has since received, a wide currency. Tiie sep-ai-ate representation of the Dominions at the Peace Conference and their admission to the League of Nations as though they were independent St«t«i hat •QQouragad *b« idoi j&At * faxiifa ttihwal bt4

disintegrated the British Empire and given the Dominions full independenpe. Yet the true answer was that* given to Sir Wilfrid Laurier's doctrine by a German staff officer about three years before ths War.

If England and Germany are at war, Germany, he said, will decide if Canada is at wur, and Canada will have to pay Germany's price for not being at war.

Theoretically that answer was correct, though its assumptions were signally falsified by Canada's eagerness and Germany's naval weakness when the trial came, and theoretically it is true still. Legally, if Britain is at war, we shall all be in it. Practically, the extent of the Dominions' support will depend on their belief in the justice of the cause. Without countenancing the constitutional absurdities to which we have referred, Mr. Chamberlain is doing his best to do what maybe done in advance to comply with this condition. .