POWERS AND ARMAMENTS

Taranaki Daily News, 17 January 1933, Page 5

POWERS AND ARMAMENTS

looking to the FUTURE THU POSITION IN EUROPE. . ; WARNING BY MR. CHURCHILL. . London, Nov. 29. Mr. Churchill has returned to the House of Commons after his illness and was one of the principal speakers in the debate on the Address-in-Reply, states the London correspondent of the New Zealand Herald. He surveyed the posi- "jj tion in Europe and had a good deal to say about disarmament and the “iron realities” below the surface of Eure- J.;.? pean affairs. “Germany' has paid since the war an' indemnity of over one thousand million impounds sterling, but she has-borrowed ■ t at the same time two thousand millions .' sterling with which to pay this indemnity and to equip her factories. Now she -- V has come to Lausanne freed virtually from all those reparations. At the same ; J time, the commercial, debts may prove ultimately to be irrecoverable. z < “Now the demand is that Germany ; ; should be allowed to re-arm. Do not let us delude ourselves. All those bands of splendid Teutonic youth marching to Ji; and fro in Germany with the light of ' desire to suffer for. their Fatherland in their eyes—they are not looking for status. They are looking for weapons, and when they have the weapons, be-; lieve me, they will then ask for the re-'' storation of lost territories and . lost colonies, and when that demand is nfede it cannot fail to shake, and poisibly f Ji-J shake to their foundations, many coun- J tries of Europe. ■ . ■" ’■ \- jii _ LIMIT TO DISARMAMENT. '

“But besides Germany there is Russia, who has made herself an Ishmael among . , the nations—Russia, with her enormous-, and rapidly increasing armaments, her limitless man power and her corrosive hatreds, with her. frontiers upon whole fj - j lines of countries which have/ newly.'. gained their independence. “We, with our heavy burdens and J, wide Imperial responsibilities, ought to be very careful not to meddle impru- ■ ■ dently or beyond our proportionate station in this tremendous European structure; for if we were to derange the ex-j, isting .foundations —of force though they J be —we might easily bring about the .y, very catastrophe that of all we desire to avert and avoid. 1 ! r “What would happen to us then no- jj. body could predicate. If we had . the J ' sense that by the part we had played - 1 in Fumpy-an affairs we had precipitated ■; a catastrophe, I think our honour might ® be engaged in a way beyond the limita-v. tions which our treaties and agreements .prescribed. • “We must not forget, ‘and the United yStates must not forget, that we have dis?, jj armed while others have rearmed, and we must not be expected to undertake J; a part larger than is in our capacity .to make good. For that reason, I thought z. that the Note which the Prime Minister ; and the Foreign Secretary sent to Ger- ; many a couple of months ago was .* wise, prudent and necessary document.” , . . , ■ ' • ' ; .Jjr “STEADILY MARCHED BACKWARDS.’

“We have steadily marched backwards - since Locarno,” continued Mr. ChujchilL . “Look at the distance we have fallen since then. Fears are greater, rivalries are sharper, military plans are closely concerted, military organisations, are more carefully and definitely de* veloped; Britain is weaker, and. Britain’s - period of weakness is Europe’s period of danger. All over Europe, except here, , there is hardly a factory which has not been prepared for its alternative war ser- - ■ vice, and every detail worked put for its .E immediate transformation upon ..th*;/ signal* ■ ‘ “Just as the late Lord Birkenhead,’’. Mr. Churchill proceeded, “said about' India- ‘Tell the truth to India,’ I say ■ now ■to the Governments Tell ■ the truth: * to the British people.’ They are a tough ? people. They may be offended at the i moment But if you tell them exactly what was going on you can insure your-:-., selves against* protests when-you come : . home on the morrow of the Disarmament Conference. 7 “France, as Lord Grey recently reminded us, though armed to the teeth, is’ pacifist to the core. No initiative for making trouble can come from France ;; a her associates. I think we ought to see- • there is something good to replace • French discipline before we press unduly - to weaken the factors of safety upon : which their security depends. I . frankly would rattier see another ten j years or twenty of, one-sided armed peace than see a war between equally well-matched Powers or combinations., And that may easily be the choice.. ‘ viV-i . “I do not believe in the imminence - of war in Europe. I believe wisdom and skill we shall never seejt h in our time. I put my confidenc£flrst< of all, upon the strength of the French army; secondly, upon the preoccupation : of Russia in the Far East, on account e£. the enormous increase in th* armament of Japan; and, thirdly, upon the loathing of war which prevails in ail countries not dissastisfied with the b» ; ,. peace. , ‘'./sj “Here I will propound a general pnnciple. The removal of the just grievance :< of the vanquished ought to precede thq.jdisarmament of the victors. The bringing about of anything like equality of asma* < ment while grievances are unredressed.;, would appoint the day for another Euro-j; pean war." '•