The Timaru Herald WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1937 SOURCE OF BRITAIN’S INFLUENCE IN EUROPE.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20851, 6 October 1937, Page 6

The Timaru Herald WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1937 SOURCE OF BRITAIN’S INFLUENCE IN EUROPE.

Every intelligent citizen of the Commonwealth of British Nations will whole-heartedly support the pronouncement of the president of the British Labour Party Conference when he said that “unless Britain reasserts her influence the abominable massacres of civilian populations and the systematic destruction of whole cities may be repeated on an even greater scale in other countries.” But how is Britain to reassert her influence? For some years, influential groups of public opinion in the Homeland pinned their faith in collective security and the influence of the League of Nations. The British Parliamentary Labour Party for years offered the strongest opposition to the very suggestion that Britain should put her house in order in relation to armaments. It was insisted that Britain should give a lead to the world in disarmament, and public opinion was so strong in support of disarmament that Britain actually reduced her armaments below the safety line. It was considered not unlikely that if Britain would give a lead to the world to reduce armaments year by year that a state of world disarmament would ultimately come; indeed, British statesmen became convinced that because Britain bad undertaken to engage in successive reduction in armaments each year, that her example would be followed by the Great Powers. The British Parliamentary Labour Party was among the strongest supporters of general disarmament. What then has compelled this change of heart and attitude? Plainly the people of Britain and the Overseas Dominions learned an unforgettable lesson in the Mediterranean during the Italian campaign in Abyssinia. Il Duce and his naval and air force practically defied Britain, because they knew that years of gradual disarming had reduced Britain’s strength on the sea and in the air far below the standard of first-class Powers. It can therefore be said that the attitude of supporters of world disarmament has not changed, but that the changing conditions in the world to-day have compelled the people of Britain to accept a change of policy. This has been forced upon them by the stern logic of circumstances. The British Parliamentary Labour Party now in conference at Bournemouth warns the nations that “tremendous dangers overshadow them and nothing can be gained by playing ostrich.” But the Labour movement in the Homeland ought to admit that in the past it cherished the idea that the peace of the world could be preserved by an organised system of collective security. Subsequent events have demonstrated that although collective security might be made the most effective weapon in the maintenance of world peace, events of the day have demonstrated that the world today rejects the principle, and has really returned to the worship of force as the arbiter in international disagreements. How then can Britain reassert her influence and save the world from a rapid descent to barbarism? The answer can be found in the impressions gained by New Zealanders who have recently visited the Homeland. Why is it that to-day Great Britain now commands the respect of other great Powers? Mr W, O’Shea, city solicitor, of Auckland, who has just returned from a trip to the Old Land, declares that the reason for this is to be found in Britain’s rearmament. “The Coronation celebrations,” Mr O’Shea suggested, had also assisted substantially to show Europe that England to-day had solidity and power which she did not possess in their eyes a few years ago.