BRITAIN SAVED WORLD

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 March 1939, Page 14

BRITAIN SAVED WORLD

MR. STANLEY BRUCE’S BELIEF “The British Empire is again becoming one of the great forces of the world, and its strength is one of the great factors for preserving the peace of the world.” said the High Commissioner for Australia in London, Mr. Bruce, speaking at a dinner given in his honour by the Royal Empire Society at the Australia Hotel. Sydney, recently.

Mr. Bruce said he believed that Britain was rapidly reaching the point where she need no longer fear a war for which she had been unprepared and a war long drawn out. “Britain and the British Empire have not been false to their trust in recent years.” declared Mr. Bruce. “They have played their part as well as our ancestors did. and I believe that when the history of recent events comes to be written it will be shown that Britain has saved the world. For my part. 1 say. ‘To hell with the detractors of the British Empire.’” Suggestions had been made, said Mr. Bruce, that the prestige and influence of Great Britain and the British Empire had progressively declined during recent years. The reasons put! forward by those who held these views j were that Britain should not have allowed the present position to arise; | that, now that it had arisen, she was ; truckling to the dictators instead of; discipling them. I In considering those views, two' things had to be remembered: That Britain was not the policeman of the | world; and that the traditional policy i of the British Empire was to keep out | of European entanglements, save for the protection of vital "British inter-I ests, as, for example, the domination by any foreign Power of France. Belgium. and the Low Countries.

“The story of the failure of the League of Nations is not the story of the failure of the British Empire to honour its obligations,” said Mr. Bruce. “It is rather a story of great endeavour by the British Empire, which was brought to naught by the failure of others to live up to their obligations.” Mr. Bruce said that Germany walked out of and wrecked the Disarmament Conference in 1933. That act was a defiance by Germany of the world and the repudiation of her treaty obligation. At that time Germany had few trained men, no military aeroplanes, and practically no serious armament.

Germany could have been disciplined with ease. It would have been only a matter of a few weeks before Germany would have been brought to her senses. The method, however, would have to be by armed force, in other words, a preventive war. The nations were not prepared to take that action. What would have been the attitude of Australia if Britain had then declared she was once more going to war with Germany? Such action would have been bitterly resented. “Germany, having got past this danger point, went ahead in.defiance of the world and re-armed,” said Mr. Bruce. “In 1936 she re-occupied the demilitarised zone in defiance of her treaty obligation, and in defiance of the world. Again only a preventive war could have halted the Germans — a much more difficult and serious one than when they walked out of the Disarmament Conference. Again the world was not prepared to act, nor, I suggest, would Australia’s opinion have endorsed such action. “We then come to last year and the forceful occupation of Austria by Germany,” added Mr. Bruce. “Again, would we have been prepared to fight on this issue? It would have been difficult, because Austrian opinion, owing to Nazi propaganda, was divided

I on the question of absorption into the | Reich.” I HITLER’S HARSH TERMS. ! Finally, said Mr. Bruce, had come the Czechoslovakian incident, in which the quarrel was between Czechoslovakian citizens in the Sudeten area and the Czechoslovakian Government. Subsequent to the settlement of the incident in September, Herr Hitler had laid down very harsh terms in which he was revealed not only as the dictator of Germany, but also the dictator of Europe. Those terms the United Kingdom had refused to accept, and on the question of the terms had committed herself to war, a decision, which showed great courage, and was true to British character and tradition. ®

“Now,” said Mr. Bruce, “we are faced with the position that the League is powerless, and that there are certain countries in the world that have shown by their acts that they are prepared to achieve their aims by force and threats of force. Are they to be allowed to march from threat to threat and from triumph to triumph? The answer is no. The world is rapidly re-arming morally and physically under the leadership of Britain, and is rapidly approaching defensive deterrent strength before which any aggressor will pause.”