LABOUR AND ARMAMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22833, 14 September 1937, Page 9

LABOUR AND ARMAMENTS

NEW VIEW EXPLAINED AGGRESSION OF FASCISTS British Wireless RUGBY, Sept. 12 The Daily Herald reports at length the almost unanimous approval of the Trades Union Congress at .Norwich of the'statement on international policy and defence prepared by the National Council of Labour, Political opponents have naturally not been able to resist making some play with what The Times calls going "back to facts" and coming "down from the clouds on to more solid facts."

. Through the patronage of political criticism and the pique and primness it provokes in pro-labour circles, there may be seen a serious. and common realisation that the decision of the Trades Union Congress, which it is considered certain will endorsed by the Labour Party conference next month, represents an important manifestation of national will and determination that Britain shall be equipped adequately to discharge her responsibilities f9r peace and war. The Daily Herald says, editorially, that approval of the statement by the unions connotes recognition that the long established. foreign policy of Lab-' our requires a different attitude to national defence, not because the policy has changed, but because the international situation has changed. Opposition to rearmament is withdrawn because Labour, in fact, believes that Fascist aggression has made British rearmament inevitable.