THE SECURITY PACT

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 31, 5 August 1925, Page 4

THE SECURITY PACT

OPPOSITION PRESS CAMPAIGN DOMINION NEWSPAPERS QUOTED. (fEOM OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, 25th June. Under the heading, "Strong Dominion Views," the "Daily Express" quote* from those journals in the Dominions which have expressed disagreement with the proposed Security Pact. '"Opinion in sill the British Dominions, almost without exception, is strongly and definitely opposed to the proposed peace pact which would irrevocably bind Great Britain to participate in Europe's wars. 1' This is what the "Express" maintains, and to support the contention in regard to New Zealand it quotes the "Star," ot Auckland, and the "Lyttelton Times. <: Mr. Coates's cablegram to Mr. Baldwin, needless to gay, is not given as a "strong Dominion view." In a leading article the cams journai sets out to prove that the Pact is not a bilateral one. "It is unilateral because its condition* compel us, in the event ot war between France and Germany, to fight on the side of France whatever the justice or th» occasion of the conflict. "If Germany chooses to invade the demilitarised^ zone in an effort to attack France this country. is, ipso facto, at war with Germany. It does not follow that we are at war with France if she crosses the demilitarised zone in an assault 'on Germany. Mr. Chamberlain would concede her the right to do so, un. opposed by ug, if, In the sole judgment of France, the terms of an Eastern pact between France, Germany, Poland, ana Czechoslovakia had been violated. "There will always ■be potential troubla on the artificial German-Polish boundary. And if there is not real trouble Poland can always make it. "All France has to do is to give the word to her faithful Polish ally that racial incidents on the debatable territory would be opportune. As soon as the quarrel assumes serious diplomatic proportions or fighting begin* France has only to declare, quit* apart from the view of the League of Nations, that the Franco-.German-Polish Pact or the consequent arbitration treaties have in her opinion been violated. Then she Is free to march into Germany and set all Europe by the ears. Great Britain could not move a finger to prevent France doing this." "DEEP-SEATED CONVfCTIONS." The '^Evening Standard," another ot Lord Beaverbrook'e journals, follows the lead of the "Express" with less apparent conviction. "In Australia," It rays in a leading article, "Mr. Charlton, the Labour leader, thinks the' Pact would not militate" against war, but would, on the contrary, lead to » renewal of the armament* race. The Press of New Zealand emphasises, the unwillingness of the Dominions to bind themselves to any course of action Involving the risk of participation in a European war. That these expressions ot view represent the deep-seated convictions of the great mass of opinion in the Dominions there is no doubt, and the danger of the British Government pur r . suing a line of policy so distrusted by the peoples of the outer Empire is too obvious to need underlying."