Evening Post SATURDAY, JULY 1, 1939. WHERE BRITAIN STANDS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 1, 1 July 1939, Page 8

Evening Post SATURDAY, JULY 1, 1939. WHERE BRITAIN STANDS

It is sometimes said—and with some show of truth—that if Sir Edward Grey, who controlled British foreign policy in- the years preceding the Great War, had made it quite clear to the nations of Europe where Britain stood and what she would do in certain contingencies, there would have been no war. Germany, at any rate, seems to have been confident of British neutrality, and the surprise of her statesmen over Belgium and the "'scrap of paper" appears to have been genuine enough. But when Germany learnt the truth, it was too late to stop the war machine set in motion on her borders and so the world was involved in a war which resulted, indeed, in the downfall of Germany and her allies, but profited nobody. If Germany could have foreseen the alignment of the forces 'against her,- it is doubtful whether she would have ever ventured the -challenge. When nations know who is "on our side" and who is not, • they think twice before staking their existence on. the arbitrament of arms. It is the "clanger of a misunderstanding in the Germany of 1939 similar to that of the Germany of 1914 of Britain's intentions that led the Foreign Secretary (Lord Halifax), in addressing the Royal , Institute of International Affairs on' Thursday^ to take this earliest opportunity of declaring, in the words of the Official Wireless message yesterday, "the immediate purposes of British policy in vigorous and unmistakable terms." .Whether there has been any real misunderstanding of British policy is open to argument, but there have been what Lord Halifax characterised as "mischievous misrepresentations of our actions and "motives which some people in countries holding a different international philosophy from our own think fit to make." Examples which have appeared in the* news from time to time show that the misrepresentation is two-fold and self•contradictory; On the one hand, Britain is pictured as endeavouring to compass the encirclement and crush the economic life of Germany and her partner, Italy, and, on the other, of being too weak to help any other nation, or even to help herself. The purpose of such duplicity in propaganda is obvious, first, to persuade the people1 of Germany and Italy that their existence is threatened, and, second, Jo discourage any other nation from relying on British guarantees of assistance. The second purpose is supplemented by what Lord Halifax called "provocative in* suits to our fellow-countrymen further afield." The answer is in the Foreign Secretary's plain words: I can say at once that Britain is not prepared to yield either to calumnies or to force. It may afford some satisfaction to those who have pronounced our nation to be decadent to learn that they themselves have found the cure and one which is most effective. Every insult offered to our people and every rude challenge to what we value and are determined to defend only unites us, increases our/ determination, and strengthens our loyalty to those others who share our feelings and aspirations. Without recapitulating the acts of aggression, familiar to the whole world, Lord Halifax laid it down emphatically that Britain's first re. solve was "to call a halt to aggression." "For that reason," he said, ""and for that reason alone, we have Joined with other nations to meet the common danger," Specifying the new agreements for, mutual defence with Poland and Turkey, the guarantees to Greece and Rumania against aggression, and the negotiations w^th the Soviet, ,he said: These arrangements, we all ]?now and the world knows, have no purpose other than defence. They mean what they say—no more, no less. ~ If Germany chooses to construe them as "encirclement," with the motive of stifling natural outlets, the fault is Germany's, as Lord Halifax declared in a striking passage: Germany is isolating herself and doing it most successfully arid completely. £he is isolating herself from other countries economically by her policy of autarkje, politically by a policy that cause's constant anxiety to other nations, and culturally by her policy of racialism. . , . The fault does not lie with us. It depends on Germany and Germany alone .whether this process of isolation continues or not, for any day it can be ended by a policy of co-operation. Thus, even at this/late hour, the door is still open to Germany to participation, with peace *and profit, in the "reconstruction of international order on a broader and firmer foundation" which Lord Halifax put forward as the ultimate aim of British policy. Nothing could be clearer and franker. Yet, according to the latest Berlin news, official quarters there declare that Lord Halifax's speech contains "nothing

new" and the political spokesman j said:..-■" _ | We are experiencing a wave of British oratory. Jt- would be better if Britain did not keep repeating that she is not aggressive and does not want to encircle us. That only makes us suspicious. Nor is the news from Danzig encouraging. Rumours of an imminent Nazi coup are current. Danzig is intimately concerned with Britain's obligations to Poland, undertaken, as Lord Halifax said, "with a full understanding of their consequences." With the fate of , Poland Soviet Russia is also intimately concerned, and for that reason has been asked by Britain arid France to stand in with them in their guarantee of assistance, in Lord Halifax's words, "in the defence of States in Europe whose independence and neutrality may be threatened." Lord Halifax expressed hope of an early successful issue to the negotiations with the Soviet, but an article in the official journal, the "Pravda," quoted yesterday in the cable news, suggests that Russia is not yet satisfied with the Franco-British proposals. The association of Russia with the peace front is of such obvious importance in relation to Poland as to call for the best efforts of diplomacy to conclude an agreement.

said: