LEADERS SURVEY WORLD ON PEACE DAY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 509, 12 November 1928, Page 9

LEADERS SURVEY WORLD ON PEACE DAY

Nations Draw Closer

BALDWIN SEES PROGRESS

Greater Feeling of Peace

British Official Wireless Received 11.5 a.m. RUGBY, Sunday. TUB Prime Minister, Mr. Stanley Baldwin, speaking last 1 night, made a wide review of international relations, in which he described the improved position of the countries of Europe and of China, and gave a fine appreciation of the influence of the League of Nations.

He expressed belief in the value of wireless as an agent of peace, and examined the implications arising from the signing of the Kellogg Pact. Referring to the fact that the present British Government had been in office for four years, he said: “The history of those four years in Europe has been a history of stabilisation and reconstruction, a policy based upon and rendered possible by two outstanding events—the London Agreement (to which great credit was due to my predecessor), which placed the reparations problem on a workable and economic basis, and removed it out of the cockpit of political controversy and animosities: and secondly, the Treaty of Locarno, which ter-’ minated once and for all the war period, and reintroduced Germany into the comity of nations. “It is true that since then there have been no sensational or spectacular achievements, as those were; but the contrast between now and four years ago is a very real one. “Enmities in Europe have disappeared, or are disappearing. War wounds have healed, or are healing. Currencies have been stabilised, and though there are grave economic problems still to be solved, their solution is being approached in a new spirit of goodwill. CLOSER AND CLOSER “There is more and more throughout Europe and throughout the world to-day a feeling of the necessity of nations getting closer and closer together. “With France we have sought the closest co-operation, and a progressive i improvement has taken place during the last five or six years in our relations, which had been marked by certain vicissitudes after the war: but now all that is far behind, for we understand each other perhaps better than we have ever done before. “The fact that this improvement that has come with the years in our relations has been followed by a striking change in the internal conditions of Germany, as well as in her relations with France, is the best proof (if proof were needed) that close co-operation between London and Paris does not and cannot react, and so will not react to the detriment either of Germany or of any other Power. On the contrary, expansion of that co-operation into the wider co-operation of Locarno still forms the keystone of the European arch, and it still constitutes the policy of His Majesty’s Government. NATIONS’ PROGRESS “Peace means not less collaboration, but more, and the fact that His Majesty’s Government so often begins by seeking collaboration with Britain’s nearest neighbours does not mean that it is in the slightest degree less eager to co-operate with others.” Reviewing the reconstruction efforts, and the measures of success attending those of the nations which suffered iu the war. the Prime Minister spoke notably of the progress made by France, Belgium and Germany. Referring to Germany, he said: “Four years ago she had but just emerged from an abyss of financial, political, and economic collapse. She has more than re-established her position as a great industrial country. She is on the high road to recovering ail that wealth and prosperity which four years ago she seemed to have irretrievably lost. She has re-entered the Councils of Europe. The military commission of control has been ■withdrawn from Germany, and commercial treaties have been concluded between Germany aud this country, and German and France. “Germany’s relations with her former enemies are, in fact, restored to a position of mutual frankness and understanding. She stands today as a great country among equals, aud she owes that largely to the genius of Dr. Stresemann, her Foreign Minister, to whom everyone will wish a speedy recovery to health.” In his appreciation of the League of Nations. Mr. Baldwin said: “The League is helping, in ways not always obvious, to that peace which we all desire. Peace has to be made, in effect, by statesmen, and statesmen are fallible instruments: but nothing but good comes from this constant meeting of statesmen. In the League of Nations they learn there exactly what regard has to be paid to the peculiarities of individual personali-

ties, and they can realise there what all people want to realise, that is, to have vision to comprehend the effect of environment and tradition upon the man who comes from a country that is not your own.” PEACE BY RADIO Mentioning how at home he went round Europe on his wireless set, the Prime Minister said: “When the mass of the people realise that in whatever country in Europe there lives a human being like himself, with a family and family life, with a wireless set like himself, with his services on Sunday, his dancing in the evening, and his lectures, war presents a very

different aspect. I believe wireless is going to be one of the greatest bonds between the common people of the whole world, and it is the common people who, in the long run, will decide whether there will be war or not.” GERMANY DUBIOUS “SIREN STRAINS FROM , ENGLAND” f (Australicfli and N.. Press Association) Reed. 1.20 p.m. LONDON, Sunday. The Berlin correspondent of “The Morning Post” says Mr. Baldwin’s speech has not thawed German suspicion, all circles right and left demanding deeds and not words. Head-lines such as. “Siren Strains from England” and “The Complacent Baldwin,” are typical. The “Boerseu Zeitung” concludes that the old Entente spirit persists in Baldwin’s head. It says the reparations negotiations will test his declaration, and adds: “We fear, nevertheless, that there will be a deep cleft between theory and practice.” The “Allgemeine Zeitung,” which always is in close touch with the Foreign Office, says the 'general impression from Mr. Churchill and Mr. Baldwin’s speeches in England is that Britain is still most closely tethered to the French policy, which is in no way friendly toward Germany.”