DICTATION FROM NONE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 107, 2 November 1937, Page 10

DICTATION FROM NONE

BRITISH POLICY

TRUCULENCE DECRIED

STAND BY LEAGUE

PEACEFUL SETTLEMENT OF

DISPUTES

(British Official Wireless.)

(Received November. 2, 1.40 p.m.) ' RUGBY, Novehiber 1.

Referring to the League of Nations in the course of his speech in the House of Commons, the Foreign Secretary, Mr. Eden, said he had to, face the practical difficulty of the weakness of the League membership today. He was not arguing about whose fault it was. Of the seven great Powers only three were How could it possibly be said that if only one put faith and confidence into it one would have the overwhelming force of the League behind one? No one regretted that position more than he. "You will not have an enduring; peace until all the nations accept to be bound—as we accept to be boundby international law, and until the force against any potential aggressor is overwhelming," he said. NOT TO BE MOVED BY TRUCULENCE. Observing that the British, while ready enough to discuss anyone's difficulties, would not be moved-by truculence, a tendency to which he thought was on the increase—the method of "proclaiming a; virtual ultimatum' and calling it peace"—Mr. Eden said: "LeVme sum up the foundations of our foreign policy in the uncertain conditions today. While we are determined, should necessity arise, to defend our own vital interests and to fulfil our own international obligations, we wiil embark on no actions which would be contrary to the text or the spirit of the Covenant or the Pact of Paris. We believe in the principle of settlement of disputes by peaceful means, and will do our utmost to secure the general acceptance and observance of that principle. While we recognise that the League at present is seriously handicapped by its incomplete membership, we believe : it still,provides,the, Jjest means for obtaining that' result We shall hot be : deaf to proposals for League reform, provided they are really calculated to : strengthen international confidence and make the League more capable of ful- I filling the aims; of the Covenant. It follows that we will join in no antiCommunist and no antifascist bloc. It is the nations" foreign 'policies, not their internal policies, which concern us. We offer our co-operation to all, but we accept dictation from none."