FOREIGN POLICY

Hawera Star, Volume L, 27 October 1930, Page 5

FOREIGN POLICY

BRITAIN’S PRINCIPLES

LEAGUE THE CORNER STONE STEPS TOWARD WORLD PEACE (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, Oct. 24. The Foreign Secretary', Mr Arthur liendcrscm, in ac'knowledging the freedom of Newcastle, which was presented! to him 'to-day, reviewed .the principles iwhich had guided British foreign policy. The* comvenaut. of the League of Nations was the corner-stone of British .policy, he said. It was by virtue of the principle® embodied- in' that instrument that the British policy since the war had been pursued. . V Mr Henderson recalled what had been done in this regard under the auspices of the League of Nations in Austria, Hungary, Greece and . Bulgaria, and, as an example of the development of international co-operation' in other spheres through the -League' he mentioned that since 1921 a' series of conventions dealing with freedom of transit, freer interchange of .goods and commodities,' simplification of Customs formalities and removal of import and export restrictions hadvbeen concluded. Slavery was being effectively and successfully dealt with, as was also the traffic in dangerous drugs and the white slave traffic. 'Many important convention®’ for the betterment of labour -conditions throughout the world had been agreed' to, and the list would grow 'continually as all the nations came to see more clearly the immense power for good which world co-oper-ation through the League had on the social and economic betterment of mankind.

The policy must dim at bub-ding up the machinery of the League and strengthening its institutions and law® and making that machinery comprehensive, elastic, strong and sure, so that it would in a crisis respond to whatever strain was imposed upon it. This, perhaps, was the most important of the three parts oif the general policy. Referring to what had been accomplished in this connection, he recalled the Lo-, ear n‘o Treaty, distinguished by re non of the special guarantee undertaken by Britain to take steps against any aggressor who violated the long-debated but new settled frontier- - between France and Germany, the signing of the Pact of Paris, whereby 58 nations renounced war as an instrument of national policy, and the signing of the optional clause which bound- the signatories to accept a judicial settlement of disputes of a justifiable nature.

SETTLEMENT OF DISPUTES. - It was hoped that the Imperial Conference might agree on a formula whereby the United- Kingdom and the Dominions might go further by acceding to a general Act under which every dispute, whatever its nature, should in the last resort bo. referred to international arbitration, and the icountries undertake to abide by the award of the arbitrators. That instrument, if generally accepted, as he believed it would be, would definitely- establish a reign of arbitration in. place of force in the settlement of all international disputes. ;

As to the treaty of financial assistance accepted at. the League Assembly by 27 nations, Britain) had* coupled l her signature iwith the reservation, that it should not be binding until a final disarmament agreement was reached. The authors of the -covenant believed that international co-operation could never succeed if national armaments remained unrestricted and if competition in armaments should revive. With other nations Britain had been Working unremittingly to obtain the conclusion of the convention for the reduction and limitation of armaments, and the conclusion of the London Naval Treaty indicated some proof of her * desire to reach an agreement. _ Britain was now working to ensure that the preparatory commission on disarmament, which was to meet at Geneva in November, should culminate in success so that ai general disarmament conference might be called either during the coming year or at the latest early in 1932. Disarmament was the firslt requirement • nee-essaTy to make war® impossible, to contribute- in however small a degree, to. the betterment of international relations, to the strengthening of the will- to peace and to an improvement of the machinery, by which the organisation of the world for peace could be developed. This wa§ the definite ideal of British statesmanship that had guided him in. the high office he held.