“READY TO HONOUR COVENANT”

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20668, 5 March 1937, Page 9

“READY TO HONOUR COVENANT”

BRITAIN’S POLICY DEFENDED MINDFUL OF DANGERS IN EUROPE STATEMENT IN HOUSE OF LORDS United Press Association—Bv Eactru Telegraph —Copyright RUGBY, March 3. Replying for the Government in the debate on foreign affairs, in the House of Lords, Lord Halifax said they had been warned in the speeches delivered about the dangers of isolation. ‘‘We can neither be isolated nor isolate ourselves if we wished to do so. The future is always necessarily uncertain, but so far as it can be defined, I suggest that the policy of the Government is crystal clear. I share the anxiety of those who have spoken about the possibility of an Eastern entanglement, and I am not oblivious to the great danger in Western Europe, as a result of possible complications in the East linked by a Franco-Soviet pact. If we are unable to define beforehand what might be our attitude to hypothetical complication in Central or Eastern Europe, that is not to say we disinterest ourselves in the fate of those parts of Europe. We have repeatedly maintained an attitude to carry out our obligations under the Covenant. If those obligations are not capable of precise definition, that is the defeat of the covenant Itself. Despite the weakening of the League, that does not mean that this country is without influence or authority, which will always be used to prevent any conflict arising.”