NEUTRALITY PLEA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22351, 24 February 1936, Page 9

NEUTRALITY PLEA

AMERICAN SENATOR CRITICISM OF BRITAIN POLICY TOWARD ITALY By Telegraph—Prcßa Association—Copyright (Received February 23, 6.35 p.tn.) WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 In the course of a Washington's birthday address to-day, on the 204 th anniversary of the birth of America's first President, Mr. W. E. Borah, .Republican member of the Senate for Idaho, made a strong plea for American neutrality in the Italo-Ethiopian war, or any other foreign controversy in which the nation was not directly concerned. At the same time Mr. Borah issued a broadside attack on the policy which Britain is now following. The speech is considered to be of the utmost political significance, as it was Mr. Borah's; first public utterance since he formally announced that he would be a candidate for the Presidency. In plain language he accused Britain of being neutral when Japan broke the Covenant oi: the League in Manchuria, and non-neutral when Italy invaded Ethiopia, where, he said, British interests were directly affected. There was no longer neutrality, however, because it was not to the interests of the British Empire to have neutrality. Mr. Borah conceded that Britain had a right to change her policy. However, lie denied her right, or the right of any group of nations, to brand the United States as favouring war, or as pursuing a course that was selfish or immoral in adopting a, policy of neutrality in the Ethiopian affair.