UNITY IN FOREIGN POLICY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18963, 10 March 1925, Page 8

UNITY IN FOREIGN POLICY.

Interest in foreign policy has been revived by the prospect of a European pact of guarantee, possibly to be entered into by a very strong combination of nations. In accordance with past precedents, the Dominions will doubtless be consulted by Britain before definite I commitments are made. As has been slated emphatically by the Morning Post, the fact that the affair is purely European does not authorise the Dominions to feel indifferent about what is to happen. I It may be unfortunate that the major questions of foreign policy require to be considered primarily in terms of war and peace. That aspect is useful however to show how diplomacy cannot be confined by geographical boundary fences. The United States has endeavoured to do this, but already it is becoming apparent that the American ideal of isolation, of aloofness from the affairs of Europe, is impossible of realisation. This is even more so with the Dominions. Should they persist in regarding European affairs as none of their own, reciprocal action would be both easy and natural. It must be remembered that some of the most serious problems of the Dominions, especially the racial problems, are not fully realised in Britain ; opinion outside of those specially well-in-formed is largely indifferent to them. If then, the Dominions desire to dissociate themselves from European problems, Britain has an equal right to adopt neutrality when the Dominions have to grapple with what might be considered localised difficulties. In that lies the danger of a drift apart. The remedy is cultivation of a recognition that isolation, in any degree, is neither possible nor desirable. The affairs of any part of the world affect the whole world in these days of complicated social and economic relationships. The present European negotiations illustrate completely the need for unity of outlook in foreign policy.