Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5, 1933 BRITAIN’S EUROPEAN ENTANGLEMENTS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 5 April 1933, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5, 1933 BRITAIN’S EUROPEAN ENTANGLEMENTS

NEW ZEALAND’S economic prosperity depends so largely on the well-being of Great Britain, that that country’s political entanglements with the nations of the European Continent are necessarily watched, here, with some anxiety. For that reason the forthcoming House of Commons’ debate on the prospective severance of Britain’s trade-relations with Russia will be awaited with interest. Great Britain naturally wants to preserve, and if possible to increase, her trade in every direction. She has accepted the axiom that it is not essential that sentiment shall be an element in the buying and selling of British goods; but she has certainly imagined that, just as she gives her protection to all foreigners within her borders, so also she expects that her nationals, residing in foreign countries, whether for business or pleasure, shall be treated with similar consideration. Apparently some six British subjects, invited to Russia by the Soviet Government for the purpose of installing certain machinery, have been arrested and are to be tried on charges of military and economic espionage, bribery, and sabotage. The Soviet Government, as is well known, has set up a new standard of living and a new standard or morality, or of immorality, and what is perfectly permissible in England is a crime in Russia, and what is a misdemeanour, punishable in England with fine or imprisonment, is in Russia a crime punishable with death ! So the fate of these unfortunate Englishmen in Russia will be watched with anxiety, since it is evident that the

British Government takes the most serious view of their treatment by Joseph Stalin, the Russian Dictator, and his myrmidons. Next, there is the prospect of another Peace Pact, to which Great Britain will bo a party, thus increasing her commitments on the European Continent. The French Ambassador at Romo has declared :

It is clear that the state of Europe has become alarming. If the Disarmament Conference broke up, it would leave .Europe divided into hostile

camps, and to this would be added the demand for the revision of frontiers. It would be thought that the Continental nations could be left to settle those matters among themselves. Great Britain should surely have no place in either of those hostile camps : she is not personally concerned in the frontiers in question: her insular position should exclude her from the quarrels between European nations jealous of each other’s territorial possessions. But, no. Mr MacDonald and Sir John Simon have recently adopted tlio attitude —adopted not long since by Sir Austen Chamberlain, when he was Foreign Minister —that nothing of international importance must take place on the Continent of Europe, without Great Britain having “a finger in the pie.” That attitude was logical and right when Napoleon Bonaparte was alive, and Great Britain was weak in comparison with France. It was right and proper when the Kaiser Wilhelm 11, nearly nineteen years ago, entered on his criminal career of aggression which has ended in his exile, in Holland. But it does not seem necessary for Great Britain to take a hand in every political game of euchre which the European Powers decide to play. Great Britain is the head and front of an Empire which is larger than Europe, and if she is to look after that Empire properly, and manage its affairs wisely and successfully, it does not appear that she will - be able to afford much time to managing the affairs of Europe as well. Except in matters of trade, what really is Europe to her, and she to Europe? Yet, every month, every week, practically every day, the cablegrams printed show that the British Government is closely involved in the politics of Europe! And it seems that that state of things will continue while internationalism plays so great a part in the British Cabinet, and those Conservatives who think imperially appear to have little or no part in forming the Government’s policies.

It will be noticed that the British Government refrains from remonstrating with the Germans in regard to their treatment of the Jews, and that is more remarkable because the British Foreign Minister is a Jew, of Jewish extraction, and certainly must loathe Herr Hitler’s persecution of the Jews in Germany. But at the present time the British Premier and his Foreign - Minister are so deeply .engaged in promoting the Four Powers’ Peace Pact, to which reference has been made, that they have not yet made representations on behalf of the German Jews. Furthermore, they propose that Germany shall be one of the parties to the proposed Pact, and how can they quarrel with Herr Hitler over his treatment of the Jews, and at the same time expect him do walk quietly into the peace-net. which they are setting for Europe’s antagonistic political leaders at Geneva? Immersed in the great game of European politics, how can they be expected to take adequate interest in the economic development of the Empire, and the strengthening of its political unity? Of course they may achieve fame on the world’s political stage. But should that suffice?