The Hawera Star. FRIDAY, JUNE 12, 1925. EUROPE AND THE DOMINIONS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 12 June 1925, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

FRIDAY, JUNE 12, 1925. EUROPE AND THE DOMINIONS.

Delivered every evening by 5 o’clock u Manaia Normanby, Okaiawa, Elthain, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Alton, Hurleyville, p a tea, Waverley, Mokoia, W’.iakamara, Ohangai, Meremere, Fraser Road, an Ararata.

With talk- of the British frontier being moved to the Rhine, and of the Home Government having to choose between France and the Empire, a section of the London Press .appears, to be working itself up into a high -state of excitement before there is. anything very definite to go upon in the matter of the proposed security pact. It is quite clear from a statement made by Mr. Baldwin in the House of Commons on Wednesday (and published on the opposite page to-day) that nothing had been signed up to that time, ancl that nothing would be signed until the House had been given an opportunity of considering the position. Moreover, wo had an assurance from London yesterday that the Dominions are to be consulted before any definite pad is concluded. The fact that the whole affair is still in the air rather takes the edge off the grandiloquent language of the Daily Express’s warning that “the pact puts the lives of our sons in pawn and shatters the solidarity of the Empire.” If the solidarity good old Red. Fed word!—of the Empire be called upon to withstand no greater shock than that of a pact which does not exist, we may expect New Zealand to be coloured] red on the maps for a year or two yet. The Express is talking more rationally when it says public opinion in the Dominions is so strong that- no Government will consent to give a written undertaking to intervene in Europe in the event of something happening in the future, the nature of which none can foresee. But surely no one suggests that the British Government either would take such a step l in the dark. EVen without Canada's wild rush to get her objection in first, the attitude of the Dominions ctn this question is sufficiently well known; and the mind of the British public cannot be cast in any markedly different mould. England' has had cuase to be thankful for the presence of the' Channel too often to do anything lightly which might involve planting her frontier beyond it. The qualifying word “lightly” is used with reason, for, no matter what the Dominions may think, Britain cannot isolate .herself from Europe. It would not be too far'fetched an illustration to liken the Motherland to a man living in a wooden house on the very edge of a dry-as-tinder forest in the fire season—and the Dominions to occupiers of brick dwellings ten or a down miles away. Caesar .struck at Britain from Europe, so did the Saxons, and so did William of Normandy. Philip of Spain was beaten by the .sea, Napoleon waited a week for the opportunity to launch his flat-bottomed transports — an opportunity which never came—and only the Old Clontemptibles stood between Kai-ser Wilhelm and the Calais coast. For two thousand yeans the British Isles have tempted the cupidity of European conquerors. Is it to. be supposed that, were war to come again, the country could draw around her the mantle of isolation? Even if she could, is it our wish that she .should? The flag that hais cleared the seas of slavery, that has lifted the fallen and succored the weak; the flag that has stood, so long for right against might—would we wish it to stay furled in cold indifference, if another tyrant let loose over Europe the dogs of war, burning and pillaging and murdering as he went? “Time enough to interfere then,” .some may say. Time enough? How much better to throw our weight into the scale to avert war than to be ready to strike when it breaks upon us? Mr. Austen Chamberlain is no tinkering novice in the conduct of foreign affairs, and his opinion is one to he respected. Why is he sounding the minds of the Con-tine-nth! countries in the hope of arriving ait .some mutual arrangement for the maintenance of peace? Possibly the answer is to he found ill a, speech which he delivered- to q Birmingham audience early in April:

Fear broods over Europe, the fear of war breaking out again, not today, not to-nvr-row. not, as I think, in my time; hut unless we can alter the outlook, relieve these fears, and give security in the internatioiial sphere, it is brought home to me with every day that I pass at my work that Europe is moving uneasily, slowly, it may be, but certainlv to a new catastrophe.

Ten years ago ive told ourselves that we were fighting a. war to end war To-dav the statesmen of Europe are faced by the equally difficult task of administering a peace to maintain peace; and the prayer of the world that they may succeed, for only then will the full reward be won for those who went out to battle in the still-re-cent years, and did not return. That is why Britain is in Europe to-day ;

that is whv her leaders are searching unceasingly for 'a basis of security. But to suggest that they are so blinded by the state of Europe as to forget the Empire is? absurd. Consideration for the well-being of a close neighbour has never yet implied forgetfulness of one’s own family; nor does it in this instance. Britain can be trusted not to bind the Dominions to an unknown horse, for the good and sufficient reason that she will not commit herself farther than she can see.