Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, DEC. 7, 1935. IN SUPPORT OF LEAGUE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 8, 7 December 1935, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, DEC. 7, 1935. IN SUPPORT OF LEAGUE.

It is a truism that the keynote of Britain's foreign policy is unwavering support of the League of Nations and its Covenant which she has given her firmest pledge to abide by. In the circumstances it may appear somewhat surprising that the Address from the Throne at the openiug of Parliament should have again affirmed what honest critics know to be a fact. “My Government’s foreign policy,” said the Speech, “will, as heretofore, be based on firm support of the League of Nations. It will remain prepared to fulfil in cooperation with other members of the League the obligations of the Covenant. In particular, it is determined to use at all times the full weight of its influence for the preservation of peace.” This statement comprised the opening passages of the King’s Speech, and were rightly given this important place in it. British foreign policy has been firmly directed towards making the League of Nations the great success it should be in preserving world peace; that was an obligation assumed when the Covenant was signed, but apart from it there is a firm conviction that if the League fails the danger could not really be estimated. The people mostly share this with the British Government, and have given their support for what it has done in the crisis now faced by the League. But in Italy there is an inspired movement to make British policy .appear to be concentrated against that country, and not wholly in support of the League. Sir Samuel Hoare admirably stated the position in his statesmanlike speech on October 30. The. men, lie said who try to make it appear that Great Britain is using the League to humiliate Italy for her own purposes are deliberately trying by their lies to kindle a conflagration which would destroy the League itself.

In Britain, too, the London Times lias pointed out, ‘'though, no one has ever doubted the essential honesty of British policy, there has been far too much of discordant clamour —that our representatives at Geneva were moving too fast, that they were moving too slow, that they should have dissociated themselves long ago from a quarrel which was no concern of ours, that they were heading for war, that they were afraid to fight for their principles—all of it mutually contradictory, but presenting the mischief makers outside with a ridiculously misleading picture of divided counsels. That is why the Government has found it necessary to re-em-phasise in the King’s Speech what the keynote of foreign policy is. No Power has done more than Britain to try and convince Signor Mussolini that the principles of the League must be upheld, and that an honourable settlement must be found within its framework. Sir Samuel Hoare has given a jiledge that Britain, when an atmosphere of peace is restored, is prepared to investigate Italy’s reasonable claims for expansion and economic security. Other countries will share in that investigation, but only Signor Mussolini can pave the way to it It the League is to survive its severest ordeal it must be the instrument for the peace it was created to ensure, and the historian of the future will estimate Britain s shore in this crisis as a wholehearted effort in that direction. In forcing war on Ethiopia Si - nor Mussolini has made the world realise the need for peace, lie has forced peace measures upon the League and Britain and France chiefly have taken up the work as leaders of tlie

League. The British reply to the French Note asking for an assurance that Britain would be as quick to apply sanctions in Europe as in Africa, in which it was declared that action must be collective and aggression unprovoked, has been regarded by an American writer as “the most determined and fully defined commitment to the collective system that has been put on paper since the League Covenant was signed.” The public opinion that in the main is behind the British Government in this great effort to maintain peace, is both an indication of faith in the League and conviction that the measures it has taken are right.