SOLIDARITY OF EMPIRE

Northern Advocate, 23 October 1935, Page 7

SOLIDARITY OF EMPIRE

UNITED IN CRISIS SIR S. HOARE’S STATEMENT SUGGESTED CLOSING THE CANAL. iUnited Press Association.-By Electric Telegraph. — Copyright .] (Received 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, October 22. The House of Commons was crowded to hear the statement on the international situation by Sir Samuel Hoare, Foreign Minister. * There was a full muster of Minsters on the front bench with Mr Baldwin in the centre. Even the Peers’ Gallery was full, which is an unusual sight. Representatives of foreign embassies and legations crowded the Distinguished Strangers’ Gallery, and scarcely concealed impatir ,ence.

Sir Samuel Hoare, after paying a tribute to Mr Arthur Henderson, as one deserving well of his country, declared that amidst all the battling and dispiriting conditions of the present situation, the greatest source of comfort and encouragement had been the unbroken soldiarity of the ■British Empire,, particularly the unanimity of the Dominions, which had reached the same conclusion as Britain in one of the most critical situations facing the generation. Major Attlee, Labour Leader, said that the party welcomed the rally of public opinion to League principles, but criticised the past conduct of the Government as lacking consistency and vigor; Sir Herbert Samuel said he trusted that what Sir Samuel Hoare had said did not mean that _ the adoption of sanctions would be suspended for a single day. Sir Samuel Hoare: “I do not contemplate delay, but there must be an interval before application.” Sir Herbert Samuel said he was glad to have that explanation. Mr George Lansbury, reiterating his appeal for a pooling of world resources, said: “Surely the will of man which could devise schemes of slaughter could devise collective schemes for preserving human life, by distributing the abundance that mankind produced Mr G. Mander (National Labour, Wolverhampton) said that if troops were still going through the Suez Canal while Abyssinians were being slaughtered, surely Britain must take the step which would really end the war, namely, the severing of these communications.