FINDING HERSELF.

Franklin Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 20, 19 February 1934, Page 2

FINDING HERSELF.

A NATURAL PROCESS. POSITION OF EUROPE. Addressing the Birmingham Rotary Club, Mr L. S. Avery, M.P., said that from the point of view of his own hone politics, Herr Hitler’s action had been a master stroke of strategy. lie had secured an election, or plebiscite, on the one ground on which he would carry the whole of Germany with him. No doubt Herr Hitler’s dramatic performance would create alarm for a while. . But he believed that it, would not interrupt for long—if it did not actually promote—the process of European consolidation which had been going on for some time. Europe was finding herself. She was coming together not on some reach-me-down plan concocted at Geneva, but step by step, nation by nation, group by group, by a natural process, inspired by new principles of co-operation and by new ideas and impelled by the practical urge of the actual circumstances which confronted her. Such being the situation, what should be the attitude of British policy towards it? The first thing was to bury, as decently as possible, both the Disarmament Conference and the MacDonald scheme, not because the British did not desire disarmament, but because the method of cut-and-dried schemes was the wrong one. As for taking forcible action to stop Germany re-arming, that would

only make matters worse. It would be enough, by encouraging the rest of Europe to draw closer together, to let Germany know that by no amount of re-armament could she regain a position in which she could overthrow the Versailles settlement. There was some element of truth in Herr Hitler’s continued assertion that Germany cared more for the right to re-arm than for its unlimited exercise. Personally, he would not-despair of the hope that if Germany were sensibly handled—and for that purpose the Quadruple Alliance might still prove very useful—she might yet ultimately find her own place, the great German race, in a reconstituted Europe.

Britain’s Contribution

Britain’s best contribution to the reorganisation of Europe would be on the economic side, continued Mr Amery. What the nations of Europe were groping after was some system of mutual preference, such as the British nations had established at Ottawa. They had hardly realised themselves what a landmark Ottawa had been in the reshaping of the world. The nations of Europe knew it, and were increasingly looking for their salvation to a similar policy. Unfortunately, they were held up at every turn by the most-favoured-nation clause in their commercial treaties, a clause which once also stood in the way of Empire preference until Britain denounced its application to the Empire in 1898. So far Britain had been the principal obstacle to getting rid of the clause, or modifying its application to European countries which wished to co-operate economically as well as politically. If only Sir John Simon could overcome Mr Runciman’s partiality for that clause, which, incidentally, also prevented Britain making any commercial treaties really worth having—he would do far more for the future peace of Europe than by any speeches, however logically convincing, that he might make at Geneva. For the rest, the more Britain left Europe to herself the better. He believed it was true of Europe, as was once said of Italy: “fara da se,” she will work out her own salvation. They had to hon T our their treaty obligations. Bui. Britain should avoid increasing their commitment or entangling themselves deeper in European affairs.