The Hawera Star. TUESDAY, JANUARY 25, 1927. BRITISH TROOPS FOR CHINA

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 25 January 1927, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 25, 1927. BRITISH TROOPS FOR CHINA

Delivered every evening by 5 o’olook in Hawora, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa. Eltliam, Mangatoki, ICaponga, Alt-m, Harleyville, Patea. Waver ley, Mokoia, Whakamara, Ohangai, Meremere. Fraser Road and Ararata.

The marshalling of military forces in England preparatory to their embarkation for China has aroused forebodings in the hearts of the people at Home, and they are not likely to be stilled by the assurances of the military and diplomatic authorities that in calling up reservists Britain is merely carrying out a formal measure of military efficiency. The people of England are all too familiar with the activity associated .with the assembly of regiments and the bustle of embarkation, and it is to be expected that they will fear the worst is to happen, but the decision as to the part the troops arc to play will remain with the diplomats and will depend upon the results of their negotiations; as for the public, it can only wait and sec. If the statement quoted from the Daily Telegraph, a newspaper which has the reputation of being in close touch with Britain’s foreign affairs, was intended to comfort the people of England, it fails to give anything but cold comfort, for it is cast too much in the terms of the politician to be convincing. The writer’s “admission” that the movement of large military forces to the East is an important step tells us nothing we did not know, and his attempt to reassure readers that it “may be” a mistake to regard the despatch of troops as a “ grave stop ’ ’ is more calculated to rouse alarm than to suppress the suspicion that war is imminent. The Daily Herald, the official organ of Labour, deprecates what it considers “sabre rattling as an aid to diplomacy,” and suggests that the Government should take the public into its confidence regarding its intentions in China, but in dealing with the Chinese Britain is faced with a problem very different from any that might confront her in negotiations with a European power, and the solution calls for an understanding and a foresight which is beyond the ken of the public mind. It would need more than a fiery resentment of outraged pride to rekindle the war spirit in England, were the offenders a European nation, for a war-weary England would not seize an opportunity to re-establish prestige there as would, perhaps, some of her late Latin allies of the Great War, but the maintenance of prestige can quickly develop into a casus belli when it is the prestige of a white race which is challenged by an Asiatic nation. No nation has more to lose than our own in this respect. The most ardent Imperialist will hope that Britain will retain her rights, and what is still moie important, her prestige, in the East without resort to the use of the forces she is now assembling, but a thought to the possible consequences in India and in other parts of the Empire where the British name must bo upheld if the Empire is to remain whole, will bring the support of the people rallying to the Imperial Government in any action which it may deem necessary to preserve its rights in China.