EUROPE’S AFFAIRS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 13 November 1928, Page 5

EUROPE’S AFFAIRS

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS. PRIME MINISTER’S REVIEW. REAL. PROGRESS MADE. (British Official Wireless.) JIUGBY, Yov. 10. The Prime Minister, the JRt. Hon. Stanley Baldwin, .speaking at the Lord Mayor’s banquet last night, made a wide review of international relations, in which he described the improved position of the countries, of Europe and of China. He gave a fine appreciation of the influence of the League of Nations. expressed a belief in the value of wireless as an agent of peace, and examined the implications arising from the signing of the Kellogg Pact. Referring to the fact that the present British Government had been in office four years, he said: “The history of those’four years, in Europe has been a history of stabilisation and reconstruction, a policy based upon and renderd possible by two outstanding events. Firstly the London agreement (in regard to which great credit was due to my predecessor), which placed .the reparations problem on a workable economic basis, and removed it out of the cockpit of political controversy and animosities; and, secondly, the Treaty of Locarno, which terminated once and for all the war period and reintroduced Germany into the comity of nations. “It is true that since then there have been no sensational or spectacular achievements, as those were, but the contrast between now and four years ago is a very real one. Enmities in Europe have disappeared or are disappearing, war wounds have healed or are healing, currencies have been stabilised, and, though there are grave economic problems still to be solved, their solution is being approached in a- new spirit of goodwill. There is more and more throughout Europe and throughout the world to-day a feeling of the necessity of nations getting closer and closer together. RELATIONS WITH FR ANCE IMPROVE. “With France we have sought the closest co-operation, and a progressive improvement has taken place during the last five or six years in our relations, which had been marked by certain vicissitudes after the war, but now all that is far behind, for we understand each other perhaps better than we have ever done before. “The fact that this improvement that has come with the years in our relations has been followed by a striking change in the internal conditions, of Germany, as well as in her relations with France, is the best proof, if proof were needed, that close co-operation betwen London and Paris does not and cannot react, and .shall not react to the detriment either of Germany or of any other Power. On the contrary, the expansion of that co-operation into the wider co-operation of. Locarno still forms the kej’stone of the European arch, and it still constitutes the policy of Hrs Majesty’s Government. “Peace means not less collaboration, but more, and the fact that His Majesty’s Government so often begins hy seeking collaboration with its nearest neighbours does not mean that it is in. the slightest degree less eager to cooperate with others.” Reviewing the reconstruction ..efforts and the measures of success attending them, of the nations which suffered by .the war. the Prime Minister spoke notablv of the progress made by France, Belgium and Germany. Referring to Germany, he said : “Four years ago she had hut just emerged from the abyss of financial, political and economic collapse. She has more than re-establish-ed her position as a great industrial country, she is on the high road to recovering all that wealth and prosperity which four years ago she seemed to have irretrievably lost. She has reentered the councils of Europe, the Military Commission of Control has , been withdrawn from Germany, and * commercial treaties have been concluded 'between Germany and this country and Germany and France. Her relations with her former enemies are, in fact, restored to a position of mutual frankness and understanding. She stands to-day as a great country among equals, and she owes that largely to the genius of Dr Stresemann, to whom everyone in this hall will wish a speedy recovery to health.” INFLUENCE OF THE LEAGUE. In his appreciation of the League of Nations, Mr Baldwin said: “The League is helping in a- way not always obvious to that peace which we all desire. Peace has to be made, in effect,, by statesmen, and statesmen are fallible instruments, but. nothing but good comes from this constant meeting of statesmen in the League of Nations. They have learned there exactly what regard lias to he paid to. the peculiarity of "Individual personalities, and they can 1 realise there what all people should j realise; that is to have the vision to comprehend the effect of environment | and tradition upon a man who oomes from a country that is not your own.' Mentioning how at home he went ■ round Europe on his wireless set, the Prime Minister said : “ When the mass of the people realise that in whatever country in Europe there lives a human being like himself, with a. family and stf. family life, with a wireless set like himself, with his services on Sunday, has | dancing in the evening and his lectures, war presents a very difficult aspect. I believe wireless is going to he one of the greatest bonds, between the common people of the whole world, and it is the common people who in the long run will decide whether there will be war . or not.”

GERMAN SUSPICION. NOT THAWED YET. LONDON. Nov 11. Mr Baldwin's speech has not thawed German suspicion, says the “Morning Post’s” Berlin correspondent. AH circles. Right and Left, are demanding deeds, not words. Headlines. “Siren Strains from England,” and “Complacent Baldwin,” are typical. The Bor.se Zeitung concludes that the old entente spirit persists in Mr Baldwin’s head, and says the reparations negotiations will test his declaration that henceforth there will bp neither victors nor vanquished. “The fear nevertheless exists that there will lm a deep cleft between practice and theory.” The Aillgemeine Zeitung, always in close touch with the Foreign Office, says the general impression of Mr Churchill's and Mr Baldwin’s speeches is that England is still closely tethered to the French policy which is in no wise friendly to Germany.