BRITAIN'S TASK

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 30 June 1939, Page 5

BRITAIN'S TASK

To Resist Aggression WHOLE OF STRENGTH TO BE USED IN FULFILMENT OF PLEDGES FRANK WARNING BY FOREIGN SECRETARY [ britiab Official Wireless) (Received 30th June, 10.12 a.m.) RUGBY, 29th June. Lord Halifax, Foreign Secretary, delivered before the Royal Institute of International Affairs an important speech in which, as well as declaring the immediate purposes of British policy in vigorous and unmistakeable terms, he entered into the detailed discussion of a number of problems fundamental to the reconstruction of an international order, including those issues of living space and expansion which are to-day raised as challenges by the Totalitarian States. The British policy, Lord Halifax made clear, rests on twin foundations of purpose. One is the determination to resist force; the other is recognition of the world’s desire to get on with the constructive work of building peace. But to-day there was a threat of military forces holding the world to ransom, ar.d therefore he insisted that the immediate task for Britain was to resist aggression. Only in a different atmosphere and if convinced that all nations really wanted peaceful solutions, would it be possible to enter upon a discussion of matters to which so much of his own speech was devoted. What was now fully universally accepted in Britain, but which not even yet be as well understood elsewhere, was that in the event of further aggression the British were resolved to use at once the whole of their strength in the fulfilment of their pledges to resist it. To that Lord Halifax returned more than once.

His opening remarks called attention to the commitments into which the Government has entered since he spoke at Chatham House a year ago. “To-day we are bound by new agreements for mutual defence with Poland and Turkey. We have guaranteed assistance to Greece and Rumania against aggression, and we are now engaged with the Soviet in negotiations—to which I hope there may very shortly be a successful issue—with a view to associating the Soviet with us for the defence of States in Europe whose independence and neutrality may be threatened. We assumed those obligations and are preparing to assume more with a full understanding of their consequences.” Such great changes in British policy could not have been brought about had they not been backed by the deep conviction of the British people. That conviction was strengthened by what they heard and read almost daily from other parts of the world.” MISCHIEVOUS MISREPRESENTATIONS “We read mischievous misrepresentations of our actions and motives which some people in countries holding a different international philosophy from our own think fit to make. We read them with resentment, knowing they are false and knowing that those who make them know it too. These things do not pass unnoticed here, nor I may say, do provocative insults offered to our fellow countrymen further afield. I can say at once that Britain is not prepared to yield cither to calumnies or to i force.”

“It may afford some satisfaction to those who have pronounced our nation to be decadent to learn that they themselves hav£ found the cure, and the one most effective. Every insult offered to our people, every rude challenge to what we value and are determined to defend, only unites us, increases our determination, and strengthens our loyalty to those others who share our feelings and aspirations. “Over a large part of the world old standards of conduct and ordinary human decency which man has laboriously built up are being set aside, things are being done to-day which we san hardly read without amazement so alien are they to our conception of how men should deal with their fellowmcn. Rules of conduct between nations are overridden with the same callous indifference as thet rules of conduct between man and man.” RESTATEMENT OF BRITISH AIMS Cumin* to his restatement of 1 British alms, “Bold and with such j plainness oi speech as I can com- i mand,” he said emphatically “Our i first resolve is to call a halt to ag- j ffression. I need not recapitulate acts of aggression which have taken 1 place, or the effect they have had upon the trust European nations I feel able to place in words and ! undertakings. For that reason, and for that reason alone, we have joined with other nations to meet a common danger.” “These arrangements we all know, and the world knows, have no purpose other than defence. They mean what they ,av no more and no less." SO KNCIRCLrJMIoVr That clear enunciation of Britibli in-j lentions brought Lord Halifax to an I examination of the most frequent mis- j representation to which they were sub-' jecl, namely that they constitute aj policy of "encirclement." and to that he j proceeded to give an answer in terms! of complete frankness: "We are told that our motives are to isolate Ger-! many with a ring of hostile states; to! stifle her natural outlets: to cramp and throttle the very existence of the sreat nation. What are the facts? They are very simple and everybody knows them. Germany is isolating herself, and doing i; most successfully an-' completely. She is isolating herself from oilier countries economically by her policy of autonomy: politically by a policy that causes constant anxiety to other nations, and culturally by her policy of racialism. IZ you deliberately isolate yourself from others by your own actions you can blame nobody but yourself, and as long as this isolation continues the inevitable consequences of it are bom.u to become stronger and more marked. The last

and co-operation between nations would become possible. The problem could only satisfactorily be solved for each State by the wise ordering of its affairs at home, and by adjusting and improving its relations with other States. “Nations expand their wealth and raise the standard of living of their people by gaining the confidence of their neighbours and thus facilitating a flow of goods between them. The very opposite is likely to be the consequence of an action by one nation in the suppression of tnu. independent existence of her smaller and weaker neighbours." “If Lebensraum (livingspace) is to be applied in that sense we reject, and must resist its application. It is noteworthy that this claim to livingspace is being put forward at a moment when Germany has become an immigration country, importing workers in large numbers from Czechoslovakia. Holland and Italy to meet the needs of her industry and agriculture. How then can Germany claim to be over-populated? Belgium and Holland and to a less extent our own islands, have already proved that so-called over-population can be prevented by productive work.” There was ample scope for extending to all nations the opportunity of large economic life with all that thut meant, which was implied in the term Lebensramn. If the world were organised on such lines neither Germany nor Italy need fear for her own safety and no nation could fail to profit from the immense material benefits which the general application of science had brought within universal reach.

thing we desire is to see an individual German—man, woman or child—suffering privations, but if they do so the fault does not lie with us, and it depends on Germany and Germany alone whether this process of isloation continues or not, for any day it can be ended by a policy of co-operation.” COLONIES ISSUE The denial of encirclement brought Lord Halifax to a fuller consideration of the questions of living space, colonies, access to raw materials, and changes in status quo, which was heard with great attention by a distinguished company of men and women—many experts on one or other of these aspects of international affairs. His observations were directed firstly to a refutation of the crude charges and claims which had been given currency in propaganda seeking to excuse the reassertion of aggressive force, and secondly, to an indication of how each problem would find its natural solution in an international order in which, by the renunciation of force, confidence