Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. MONDAY, OCTOBER 30th., 1933. PEACE AND WAR.

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 October 1933, Page 6

Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. MONDAY, OCTOBER 30th., 1933. PEACE AND WAR.

JT is comforting to have Ministerial statements that there is no likelihood of another great war in Europe, and that scare-talk on the subject should be stopped. All patriots will trust that this complacency proves warranted. Similar Ministerial assurances were not unknown in 1914, and remembrance of this will, now, cause some to be honest doubters. Moreover, the failure of the Disarmament Conference, the revival of militarism in Germany, Fascist challenges, increases in armaments, and dwindling of international concord and co-operation, are items that the man-in-1 he-strect cannot ignore, and it is not surprising that war and rumours of war are featured in lhe Press, and that Opposition leaders in Britain are denouncing the Government for its alleged policy errors, emphasising that no support will be coming from Labour should an appeal to arms ensue.

That there is no desire for war in Britain is obviotis from a study of leading journals, but it is equally certain that many are suspicious of certain foreign developments. Threats are made of refusals to fight should Britain enter into any war. but this extreme pacifist talk comes mainly from the quarters that supplied lhe “conchies” during the last great struggle. Any wanton attack on Britain, or any part of the Empire, would be met by the great majority with a response similar to that of 1914, but what is largely feared is that political treaty engagements will drag Britain into a struggle in which she was not vitally interested. Ministers from Mr. MacDonald downwards declare there is no cause for such anxiety, but these disclaimers are not accepted unquestioned. Labour is finding in the warrnmonrs a welcome peg on which to hang at lack’s on the Government , and claimed that the surprising defeat of the Ministerial candidate at; the East Fulham by-election, last week, was chiefly due to the desire for peace. Labour, which is ever

talking 1 fight at home, prates of peace abroad, but its policy would not make for the latter. Sir S. Cripps, for instance, denounces the League for not taking firm action, against Japan over her Manchurian aggression, but the League did as much as it could, without resorting to extreme measures, which meant war. Hitler may have been encouraged by the League’s paci-

fism to launch his defiance, but that

there is no desire for war, is proved by lhe patience which the ex-Allies arc showing with Germany, at this juncture. If peace is broken, the blame will not he the League’s nor Britain’s.

It, would be well if a truce could be called to war talk, but it is better to face the facts than to live in a fool’s paradise. It is not as if the question of peace or war depended on Britain. If it did, most arms could be scrapped immediately. But other nations are more bellicose, and at any time, some incident may provo to be as a spark to gunpowder. Germany is not the only country inclined 10 bo jingoistic. Russia, buttressed by French support, is once more a danger to world peace, civil war in Austria might easily spread into a wider conflict, and the Little Entente, which gets little publicity, has its own ambitions. Under these circumstances, it "would be suicidal for Britain to take no precautions-, or to make no preparations.