“PEACE INDIVISIBLE”

Taranaki Daily News, 21 December 1935, Page 7

“PEACE INDIVISIBLE”

ISOLATION NOT NOW POSSIBLE. WAR CONVULSION OF NATURE. The problems of peace and isolation in relation to British foreign policy were discussed by Mr. Stanley Baldwin in a recent speech. “Something has happened in the world in this last two or three months that has taken peace right out of the academic question and made it a matter of personal reality to every man and woman,” he said. “We have been learning that—so different from our own country —there are countries in the world to-day where you see a resuscitation of that old war mind that we hoped was dead ana buried beyond al! hope of resurrection 17 years ago. The problem is no less than this: Are differences that have arisen between nations to be resolved by the arbitrament of war, or can they or ought they to be solved by the processes of discussions and law which are used in private differences? “And I would put to you here at the beginning: Are you convinced that we in this country can keep ourselves apart from these grave matters? Can we live in a state of isolation from the world? There are those—not many—but there are those who believe that such a thing is possible; that you can watch if war breaks out between two nations, that possibly you may be able to trade with both, that the war is guarded, as a football match is guarded, by touchlines, and if the players cross them they are' ordered off. Believe me, such a beliefincredible in my view—it is impossible to hold. “Modern war is not of that kind. ; Modern war is like a convulsion of Nature, that spreads through the world, that turns the world upside down, that has no respect for civilians as such, and at the conclusion of which the very map of the world has to be redrawn.”