Dominions and Foreign Policy

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 109, 11 May 1939, Page 8

Dominions and Foreign Policy

“If the United Kingdom's policy towards Europe can be accused of being vague and dilatory, before the September crisis, how much more vague and dilatory were the policies of the Dominions. In effect, they had no policy at all towards Central and Eastern Europe," says the Hound Table. “One Dominion Government, that of New Zaland, had pledged itself in general, but very rigorous, terms of a policy that implied an automatic guarantee of Czechoslovakia's territorial integrity. But it is safe to say that when the time came no Government in the Commonwealth was more loth to plunge its people into war, nor was any Dominion more thankful to be allowed by the Munich settlement to turn again to the task of social and economic reconstruction to which it had set its hand. At the most, the policy of the other Dominions was one of ‘ wait and see. ’

“It may be argued that the Dominions needed no detailed foreign policy of their own towards Europe, being situated so far away from that area and being too small seriously to affect its destinies. That may indeed be the con-

clusion to which the events of last September will lead some minds. It would imply that the Dominions must accept their European foreign policy from others, and confine themselves to problems and areas nearer home. But that is not compatible with the theory of their own status in the world that is held by the Dominions."