A NEW DEFENSIVE PACT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23202, 23 November 1938, Page 12

A NEW DEFENSIVE PACT

The expectation that a pact of military .defence between Belgium and Holland will be an outcome of the visit of King Leopold to Amsterdam is an implied comment on the disquieting situation in Europe. These countries, although geographically remote from the Central European region of instability, are on Germany's western frontier, and cannot reasonably hope to escape trouble in the event of war. Belgian policy turned, a year or so ago, away from the .Locarno web of defensive agreements toward independent neutrality; in theory only, for a clear reading of the change interpreted it as still of potential service to Franoo and Britain, yet it marked a wish to be free from traditional obligations, in order to allow unfettered choice of internation.il policy should conflict occur. An important element in that determination was immediate strengthening of military precautions. This could not be thoughtfully viewed with surprise, because even if absolute neutrality had been intended the analogy of Switzerland's action, that of a State permanently neutral yet furnished with arms, provided an enlightening example. As a matter of simple fact, Belgium's experience had proved that a foreign guarantee of neutrality was insufficient to secure immunity from attack —an opinion lately emphasised, in the caso of Switzerland, by an increase in armaments. So Belgium, under no delusion about risks, took her own independent course of preparation •against them. Now, it appears, she contemplates a defensive alliance with a neutral neighbour similarly exposed to peril. Nothing could more impressively declare the at the present time, of trust in peaceful intent as a protection from others' militancy. By no stretch of imagination can either Belgium or Holland be envisaged as planning assault upon any other State. However, their projected combination to resist attack is a significant facing of realities, and should reinforce the salutary warning, to bellicose troublers of Europe, that a reckless breach of the peace will encounter stout obstacles..