SIGNIFICANT WEEKS

Northern Advocate, 18 October 1935, Page 5

SIGNIFICANT WEEKS

SIR A. CHAMBERLAIN’S VIEW BRITAIN’S ATTITUDE TO LEAGUE WHAT WILL OTHER NATIONS DO? Waited Press Association.-By Electric , Telegraph. — Copyright .] (Received 10.30 a.m.) / RUGBY, October 16. In view of his position as a former Foreign Secretary and one of the Reading elder statesmen, much importance is attached to the outline of British opinion on the Abyssinian question contributed by Sir Austen Chamberlain. in the course of an interview with “Le Soir” (Paris). British, opinion, he said, had taken sides with remarkable clearness and unanimity. No one wanted or wants to pick a quarrel with Italy, but to have remained passive would have been to sacrifice something much, more important than Abyssinia. It would have been to sacrifice the very principle that international relations should be governed by international legality. To maintain the pact of the League of Nations, Great Britain was prepared to take her place with the necessary measures, whatever may be their character.. ; Replying to a reference to suspicions that Britain was actuated by selfish motives, Sir Austen said British opinion of all parties and in all classes was actuated not by the attack oh national interests, but by the undeniable outrage on the principle of the Covenant of the League. ' “As to British policy, the coming weeks will be of cardinal importance,” he went on. “If the Covenant triumphs, our confidence in it will be strengthened and Britain will have created a precedent which will determine her attitude in other crises still to come. ' “If, on the contrary, the other nations which signed the Covenant 'and have repeatedly confirmed their fidelity to it and have .sometimes accused British representatives of lukewarmness in regard to it, fail to keep their engagements in this decisive hour, Britain will consider herself released from her engagements and her policy will be inspired, as before the foundation of the League, solely by British national interests.”