WORK FOR PEACE

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 May 1936, Page 7

WORK FOR PEACE

BRITISH MINISTERS’ SPEECHES ARMAMENTS AND TRADE [BRITISH OFFICIAL WIBELESS] RUGBY, May 1. The Prime Minister spoke at the annual demonstration of the Primrose League at Albert Hall. Mr. Baldwin said that he believed the position of the Crown was more firmly embedded in the -hearts of the people than it had ever been, being the greatest bulwark for democracy against despotism and tyranny from any quarter. The Government had begun to redeem the promise it made at the election to overhaul the. national defences and equipment. The greatest peril in the world to-day came from the air, and it was in the air that the Government was making the greatest efforts to strengthen the defence. In his view, strength in the air and the knowledge of that strength abroad, and bfthe 'defences' prepared against air attacks, were the surest guarantees of peace. ■■•“ My whole aim as Prime Minister is peace, not out of a spirit of cowardice, but because 1 realise what war means for Europe. I pledge myself that the Government is doing everything to procure and maintain peace, now an arduous and daily task. Mr. Runciman, President of the Board of Trade, in a speech at the annual dinner of the Association of the British Chambers of Commerce, said that Britain had one great advantage in regard to international trade. She was the greatest purchaser in the whole range of world markets. That was her strength. Some people regarded the increase in her imports as a danger, but that was not his view, it was his firm belief that the rise in imports in the last two or three years had been an essential element in the country’s recovery]. Trade was no oneway street. He also emphasised they must adapt themselves to new conditions, and find a way of meeting new problems with energy. Proceeding, he said: There is a word I would like to say on the subject of peace. Peace is not to be gained through mere emotional appeal, still less by effusive threats. The stabilisation of peace depends upon the slow and careful building up of the substructure of political conditions and healthy economic relations between nation and nation. The turn which the economic issues take to-day in a large part spells the destiny of to-morrow. War or peace, in our time, may hang upon the choice which nations are now making of the economic policy, which is to rule the world. The American Ambassador said the policy of the United States was based upon the belief that no nation, not even their own, with its immense resources, could be wholly self-sufficient, and that mutual removal of barriers against international trade, thereby increasing international communication, was necessary for the well-being of the world, and contained within itself, the greatest hope for the maintenance of peace. As a rule, nations were impelled to war by international economic distress. If that were true, and he believed it was, the surest method of preventing war lay in the restoration of normal international trade, bringing with it the promise to the people of the world of a better standard of living, and the hope of a fuller life.

REPLY TO GERMANY. RUGBY, May 1. The communication'"Which is to be made to Germany by the British Government early next week', with a view to elucidating certain points, and obtaining fuller information about Hitler’s proposals of European settlement, was under further consideration by the committee of Ministers last night, aud according to “The Times,” will come before the meeting of Cabinet on Monday. SIR A. CHAMBERLAIN. RUGBY, May 1. Sir Austen Chamberlain arrived in London last night, from a visit to Austria. Hungary and Czecho-Slovakia. He denied that he had been on any mission.