MENACE OF WAR.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume IV, Issue 102, 8 April 1936, Page 5

MENACE OF WAR.

Foreign Affairs Debate In England.

NEED FOR AIR PACT,

British Official Wireless.

Rugby, April 6. Foreign affairs were debated in the House of Commons to-day.

Arising out of the defeat of the Government last Wednesday on the question of equal pay for men and women in the Civil Service the question of confidence was raised to secure a reversal of the House of Commons' previous decision, and the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. C. R. Attlee, took the occasion to attack the Government's policy both at hGnvj and abroad. He contended that the menace of war had grown through the years of inept leadership of the Government, which allowed the initiative to pass from great Western democracies into the hands of dictators. He argued that for resistance to aggression the Locarno Treaty was too narrow a basis. The whole strength of the League should be organised for the preservation of law and order. Sir Archibald Sinclair, for the Liberals, and Mr. Winston Churchill took up Mr. Attlee's criticism of the Government's policy in the Italo-Abyssinian dispute, and the former spoke in favour of more resolute action on behalf of the victim of aggression. Germany. Mr. Churchill said the Government':; policy had fallen between two stools and managed to secure the disadvantages of alienating Italy and encouraging Germany to illegal action without the advantage of helping any member or vindicating the League. The lesson of thi melancholy chapter was that they should not intervene in such matters unless they were in earnest and prepared tc carry the intervention to all necessarj lengths. Mr. Churchill also raised the question of colonies and German rearmament, and spoke of the effects in eastern and south-eastern Europe which would follow reformation by Germany of its western frontier.

In answer to a question Mr. Eden said the Government desired by every practical means to avert the menace of attack from the air. In existing circumstances it considered this would best he met by the conclusion of an air pact and the limitation of air armaments.

Mr. Eden repeated that, whether in conjunction with an air pact or other means, th- Government would continue to work for the limitation of national air feces

Mr. Eden said that the important lessons to be learned from the Italo-Abys-sinian dispute were that the League wrr limited in membership and was inevitably limited in effectiveness. Financial and """nomic sanctions could not immediately be effective if the membership of the League was incomplete. "It might be said that, viewing all that happened, we should not have attempted to stop the war," he said. He did not agree. 0 Oil Embargo. Turning to recent events he recalled that Britain supported the oil embargo but France insisted on another effort a' conciliation before an embargo was imposed. Italy since acceptance of conciliation had intensified its aggression. It was the view of the British Government that there must either be real conciliation resulting in a cessation of hostilities in a given period or the Committee "f Eighteen would have to face its task again, but whatever the final verdict might be the responsibility must be shared by the League. "We will take our share, no more and no less," he said.

Regarding the German reply, Britain could not go to the meeting of the Locarno Powers with the idea that conciliation was dead. It was essential thai the German proposals should be co-or-dinated by the League. "If we can see by the end of the summer all nations in Europe members of the League, there will be a new structure of security in Western Europe replacing the Locarno Treaty and strengthening security elsewhere by arrangements directly controlled and supervised by the League," added Mr. Eden. "We shall have gained so much more security for Europe that it will be then possible to enter upon larger schemes relating to armaments, economics and the strengthening of security afforded by the Covenant itself."

Did Not Agr.se. Mr. Eden said he disagreed that they ought not even to have attempted to arrest the Abyssinian war. They could not establish international law by abetting its breach. The position of the Government remained exactly the same a. c it had been throughout the dispute. The Government was prepared to take part in economic and financial measures so far as others accepted them and carried them out in the same spirit. He had thought it wise to make it clear that the British Government could not agree that conciliation was at an end. He uttered a warning against the idea of setting aside the task which confronted them as the result of the violation of the Locarno Treaty and trying to negotiate some wide scheme of general settlement for Europe by unduly widening their aim. They might lose their immediate objective.

"Despite the difficulties of the present time the League has grown in strength through all these years since its inception, and its roots have struck deep,'' concluded Mr. Eden. "That was why it is imperative that everything we do should be founded on the Covenant." He noped they would not lightly seek to amend it until they were sure everybody in Europe was ready and willing to fulfil

obligations under it. Replying to a question whether the Government had received any communication from Turkey ir reference to thr rebuilding of fortifications in the Dardanelles, Mr. Eden said there had beer no official communication, but the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs had mentioned the desire of his Government tr raire the question at a suitable moment The House carried a vote of confidence