FOREIGN POLICY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 21, 22 December 1937, Page 10

FOREIGN POLICY

3.15 P.M. EDITION.

MR ATTLEE CRITICAL. REVIEW OF SITUATION. (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received December 22, 12.40 p.m. LONDON, Dec. 21. Mr C. R. Attlee (Labour), opening tho foreign affairs debate in the House of Commons, said Parliament was about to adjourn for Christmas, but found tho world little in accord with the peaceful traditions of the season. Wars were raging in'Spain and the Far East; there were grave incidents and grave controversies arousing the greatest anxiety. The renunciation of the League by three great Powers meant that there was no peace in the world. It was a matter, of the gravest import to tho British Empire, because the preservation of world peace was its first interest. Mr Attlee urged definite action to counteract the “propaganda war” deliberately being waged through the cinema, the Press, and the radio against the Empire,.poisoning people’s minds against Britain. Mr Attlee criticised the Government for not realising that true British in* terests were to support international law and democracy. The British Empire could only survive if it served greater interests than its own; it had survived in the past through goodwill. Now propaganda and a shortsighted foreign policy were destroying its foundations.

Mr Attlee, referring to tho talks between Herr Hitler and Lord Halifax, said the colonies should be administered first and foremost in the interests of the inhabitants. If the colonial claim was valid for Germany it was equally valid for Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Switzerland. Dividing the colonies would not bring a real settlement.