Timely Topics

Northern Advocate, 23 July 1938, Page 4

Timely Topics

Lord Allen of Hurtwood writes in the Peace Book for 1938: “The Peace movement must demand that democratic governmenfs hould more actively proclaim their esteem ; for mercy, human • kindliness, liberty and League principles. I suggest that the time has j come for a restrained and yet full fuse of a wireless news service hroadl • cast in many languages. Instructions I should be given to our ambassadors to Jmake clear our views, and these f should be published. • “Other forms of diplomatic activity |to this end should also be employfed. Speeches should be made in Par- | Lament 'and at the League table i carrying this intellectual and spiritual message to the peoples of the | world. Nor must we hesitate in this •campaign to speak equally frankly in i respect to all forms of dictatorship—- | whether Communist or Fascist. In | order to prove the integrity of this I crusade for xdghteousness as the means iof enthroning law and mercy in a | disorderly world, it is, of course, inv jperative that we should outline with | unremitting effort the new and just | Peace Settlement we desire to profmote. We must, as 'a British Com--4 monwealth, indicate what we would | put into the common pool, and what | economic and other privileges we | are willing to surrender.” T g | | g I “The weakness of France is 'a danjger t 0 all Europe” said the “Glasgow Herald” recently, “and it is al- ! most wholly a psycho--logi cal weaknessthinking makes it so.’ j By comparison with

I THE PEACE : | MOVEMENT. ;

FRANCE’S WEAKNESS.

the dictator States, France is rich. Her army is powerful, well equipped, and highly efficient. Materially, ' indeed, she is at present stronger from a military point of view than any other Continental Power. But politically her will is paralysed. And this paralysis is due to something that our fathers used to call “the, spirit of faction.” It is the besetting sin of French politics, arid it has never been at once stronger and more dangerous than it is today. This factious spirit displays itself, of course, quite !as prominently on the economic side of political life as on the Parliamentary one.

“French capital is perpetually ift flight, 'and there cannot be much doubt j that the commercial alarms which ;send down the franc on the exchanges | and help to drain the Treasury almost ito its last sou have often in recent times been so adjusted as to put the I maximum of pressure oh a Govern--I ment unpopular wi th powerful finan- | cial interests. On the other hand, the industrial workers have lately shown j themselves equally regardless of the ' country’s s'afety. In spite of the efforts of M. Blum and his Socialist Ministers, in spite even of warnings •' from the trade unions and commerI cial leaders, a wave of strikes affecti ing the armaments industries ‘ has ibeen sweeping over France.”