Evening Post. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1933. BRITAIN'S ATTITUDE

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 110, 6 November 1933, Page 6

Evening Post. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1933. BRITAIN'S ATTITUDE

In the "Spectator" of September 22 a handsome compliment is paid by its contributor "Janus" to Mr. Anthony Eden, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs. He had gone, or was about lo go, to Paris to discuss disarmament with the French Prime Minister and Foreign .Minister, while the i Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Britain stayed at home. Why should an Uhder-Secretary be loaded with so heavy a responsibility?

It is no sufficient answer to say that Air. Eden ha 9 the whole subject at his lingers' ends, writes "Janus," though that is true, or that ho is likely to do the job. hotter than, Mr.' MacDbnald or Sir ' Johu Simon, though that may be true, too. . . . Mr. Eden lias made a personal prestige of Ms own; he has been an unqualified success' at the Foreign Office; and the more disarmament negotiations are left in his hands the 'better.

It is not Mr. Eden's personal capacity but his official status that "Janus" considers to be iincqual to responsibilities of the highest importance, |and he suggests that the^ Prime 'Minister should get over the difficulty by making Mr. Eden AssistantSecretary of State, instead of Undersecretary. "Janus" points to a precedent established during the War when this rank was conferred upon Lord Robert Cecil.

No ■ careful reader of our cable news'during the last six months is likely to dissent from the suggestion of the "Spectator's" contributor. Mr. Eden—or Captain Eden, as he has until quite lately been more often called—has figured frequently and conspicuously in our reports from London and Geneva, and his utterances have conveyed the impression of competence and weight and unassertive authority. The task which he was set on Friday was just as important as that which took him to Paris last month.' Addressing a | Conservative Party mass meeting at Birmingham on October 7, Mr. Baldwin made a" brief but impressive reference to the fear that Britain had less regard for the sanctity of agreements for maintaining the peace of Europe than.she had before the War. Referring particularly to Locarno he added: "What Great Britain has signed, she will adhere to.. She adhered to her signature with regard to Belgium. Her signature to these agreements is sacred." Since then Germany has withdrawn from the Disarmament Conference and the League of Nations, and on Sunday next her Government's defiance of' Europe will be the subject of an appeal to the electors, though they will apparently only be able to vote, one way. Mr. Eden's task, at Skipton on Friday was' to expand Mr. Baldwin's brief reference and to explain the application of the Treaty of Locarno to the strife with which Europe is threatened by the action of Germany.

There was no need for scaremongering, said Mr. Eden. He declared confidently that "the situation could without doubt be redeemed," but the condition was that "we must keep our heads and our engagements." He described the Treaty, of Locarno as "one of the most effective instruments for peace in Western Europe." The fundamental .clauses of the Treaty under which Britain and Italy have joined to guarantee the inviolability of the frontiers between Germany * and Belgium, and between Germany and France, are fairly familiar. It is a mutual and everi-handed Treaty giving Germany exactly the same protection agaiijst France or Belgium that it gives them against her. The Treaty is, as Mr. Eden says, "interwoven with the machinery of the League," and with one exception the decisions to be taken under it must be taken by the Council of the League. But, as the decisions of the Council have to be unanimous and Britain is a permanent member of the Council, no decision can be taken without her consent. It is also in the last instance for the guarantor to say whether or not an unprovoked act of aggression has taken place making the obligation to intervene applicable.'

Having thus % made it quite clear tHat Britain had not so tied herself up under the Treaty that she could be rushed into war without her consent, Mr. Eden pointed out that, on the other hand, the Treaty contained no prpvision enabling any of the parties to withdraw. Replying to critics who had suggested that, "if such a course were possible, Britain would be less likely to be involved in any European war," Mr. Eden said that "the very opposite was the truth." Arid this he followed up with a clearer and more emphatic statement of Britain's attitude to this difficult problem of European entanglements than we have previously had from this Government, or, we believe, from any other since the War.

We shall not avoid another war by saying that in no circumstances shall we go to the aid of a Power unjustly attacked. ■'. Britain is still a great Power, and has the responsibilities of / a great Power. If we fear to discharge those responsibilities, vrp shall invite the disaster which will follow. A policy of isolation today is a policy of folly. With the development of air power England has ceased to be an island.' Kvcu. if wo would go back upon our word, we cannot. But, of course, there

is no question of our doing so., As Mr. Baldwin said recently, "What Britain has signed sho will adhere to."

Not often can an Under-Secrelary have been commissioned to deliver so irrtportant a statement; not often could any Prime Minister or Foreign Minister have done it better. Britain has never forgotten that'she is "still a great Power and has the responsibilities of a great Power," but she has sometimes allowed others to think that she has. It is right that she should make it as clear as words can make it that she is riot prepared to treat the Locarno, Treaty as a mere scrap of paper :