BRITISH STAND

Taranaki Daily News, 12 September 1935, Page 5

BRITISH STAND

LEAGUE’S COVENANT OBLIGATIONS ACCEPTED THE NEED FOR COLONIES BRITAIN READY TO HELP EDEN SPEAKS AT GENEVA By Telegraph—Press Assn—Copyright. Rec. 1 a.m. Geneva, Sept. 11. Soon after 11 a.m. Sir Samuel Hoare addressed the League Assembly. He said it was unjust and dangerously misleading to hold or encourage the illusion that Britain was animated by some lower motive than fidelity to the League. Her unwavering fidelity in the present case was no exception but continuance of the rule. “The recent response of British public opinion shows how completely the nation supports the Government’s full acceptance of the obligations of membership of the League as the keynote of its foreign policy,” said Sir Samuel. “The League stands, and my country with it, for the collective maintenance of the Covenant in its entirety, particularly for steady, collective resistance to all acts of Unprovoked aggression. It was a principle of international conduct to which the British Government holds with firm, enduring and universal persistence.” Sir Samuel emphasised the anxiety of some countries not possessing colonial empires and sources of raw materials. He said Britain was ready to take a share in a collective attempt to deal with the problem, but calm and dispassionate consideration was impossible in an atmosphere of threatened war. “If the manifold increased burden of the Covenant is to be borne it must be borne collectively,” he said. “If risks for peace are to be run they must be run by all. On behalf of His Majesty’s Government I can say it is second to none in its intention to fulfil within the measure of its capacity the obligations the Covenant of the League lays upon it.”