URGENCY OF PEACE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 310, 28 November 1936, Page 9

URGENCY OF PEACE

MINISTER’S PLAIN WORDS. BRITISH POLICY REITERATED. HEAVY COST OF WAR. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) Received November 28, 11.12 a.m. RUGBY, Nov. 27. When the International Chamber of Commerce entertained the Belgian Premier (M. Van Zeeland) at luncheon several British Ministers were present. The principal toast was proposed by the Foreign Secretary (Mr R. A. Eden), who said Belgium could count upon our help were she ever a victim or unprovoked aggression. “I say these words deliberately, because 1 am confident that they represent the will of the British people and that to make this plain is a contribution to peace.” Peace was the joint objective of the two countries; they shared, also, the same conceptions of' international order—the renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy, willingness to settle disputes by peaceiul means, acceptance of certain agreed canons of international law.

“But let there be no mistake; these conceptions are tokens neither of softness nor of cowardice. We believe them to be tokens of civilisation. The nations must eliooce if they determine to return to the arbitrament of the sword it will be found that the terrible weapons science has forged can be wielded with no mean courage by peoples who love their freedom, both individual a.nd national, and intend to preserve it, but the cost would be heavy,” Mr Eden proceeded. “Indeed, in this respect, there should be no excuse for a repetition of the erroneous estimates of the past. We have to-day, this supreme advantage, the experience of the War years that lies behind us. The statesmen of the world must know the Nemesis that awaits them and their countries if war is ever again loosed upon earth.” Mr Eden added: “The first aim of the foreign policy of His Majesty’s Government is the establishment of peace and understanding between nations. The aim of the International Chamber of Commerce is to promote and facilitate a profitable interchange of goods and services between imtions. We are thus natural collaborators for the greater success of each —freer trade, freer speech, freer thought across the frontiers of Europe. Could we only achieve these tilings we should have secured an incalculable gain for peace.”