WAR TALK

Southland Times, Issue 22478, 14 November 1934, Page 7

WAR TALK

“DANGEROUS MISTAKE” OPINION OF GENERAL SMUTS NATIONS NOT PREPARED (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) London, November 12. General Smuts, speaking at the Royal Institute on international affairs, condemned the war talk as a vicious and dangerous mistake. The expectation of war in the near future was sheer nonsense, he said. With perhaps one exception no nation was prepared for war. Tire suggestion that the Germans desired war and were deliberately preparing for it inferred that they were madder than any people could be today. Continuing, General Smuts said: “Manchukuo is an indication of far greater danger for the future than temporary European differences. If the Naval Treaty goes other issues settled at Washington may be reopened, and the whole of the Pacific concert may collapse. I appeal to Japan to pause before setting in motion machinery imperilling that concert which for herself might mean isolation, which the Great War showed was dangerous, even for the greatest military Powers.” General Smuts urged that western civilization will stand or fall in its contacts with the Far Eastern peoples in which friendliness and understanding were imperative. He added: “The British Commonwealth’s association lies more with the United States than with any group of world dominions owing to the community of outlook, interests and destiny. There are even stronger affiliations with America than with Britain. That fundamental affinity is and must be the real foundation of the British foreign policy, which we ignore at our peril.” STRONG AFFILIATIONS DOMINIONS AND AMERICA. (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) (Rec. 10.20 p.m.) London, November 13. The Times, commenting on General Smuts’s speech, regrets that a statement so wise had not come from the lips of a member of the Cabinet. The British Commonwealth, as General Smuts understands it, has feet in both worlds—the old and the new. The dominions have even stronger affiliations than Great Britain with the United States. The latter and the dominions alike would be estranged from the League if it were transformed into a fighting machine pledged to carry out its decisions by force of arms. The League was designed first and foremost to be a round-table of the nations, and in that capacity it represents the framework of a collective system which must be regionally built up.