MOTION OF CENSURE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 81, 6 April 1938, Page 7

MOTION OF CENSURE

COMMONS DEBATE AN ATTACK BY LABOUR I BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY [ British Official Wirsleas- ] RUGBY April 4. Rising to take part in the debate in the House of Commons on the Labour Party’s motion of censure of the ! Government, the Prime Minister, Mr. ! Neville Chamberlain, who was re- j ceived with prolonged cheers, said it | was the fifteenth debate on foreign j affairs in nine weeks and that sucn i concentrated attention on one subject j must be unprecedented in British Par- 1 liamentary history. The deoate was raised by Mr. Arthur Greenwood, who directed chief attention to the Spanish situation and to the question of foreign assistance to nationalist forces. Mr. Greenwood said he could give particulars of the number of new aeroplanes which had gone to Spain since Mr. Anthony Eden’s resignation as Foreign Secretary. He could prove that there had been a large accession of military strength to the nationalist forces. “I have figures and the numbers and types of aeroplanes that have gone there,” he declared. “I have photostat copies of German documents showing the structure of German air squadrons, one of which destroyed the last British ship that was destroyed. I have the names o£ the Germans who were in the aeroplane that destroyed that ship. It was brought down when bombing a Spanish railway line. 1 have here a photostat copy of the identification card of an officer who makes very serious admissions and who obviously does not speak without i ’mowledge.” No Intention to Change Policy In replying, Mr. Chamberlain said ‘ that the policy of the British Govern** meat had won the general approval; of the whole country and practically j the whole world. It was still a fact• that the Government looked forward i to the time when the League of Na- : tions would be so strengthened and so; revitalised as to fulfil its purpose to be i an effective instrument for the pre-’ vention of war and the establishment of a settled peace in the world. “We shall do our best, to increase the efficiency of the League until it is capable cf performing those functions, ’’ he said, “but it cannot perform them to-day.” , The Prime Minister said that the Government had no intention or changing its policy regarding non-in- ■ tervention in Spain. The Liberal Leader. Sir Archibald Sinclair, said he thought it a mistake to have had a debate. The Prime Minister’s policy had not won the country’s approval, nor that of the Dominions and the whole of the rest of the world, as Mr. Chamberlain claimed. “Call the League of Nations together before it is too late to rally the forces of freedom and justice,” he urged. “We want to put peace, law and justice in the world on the moral basis of the Covenant of the League of Nations.”

The Labour censure motion was as follows:—“That as the foreign policy of the British Government cannot arrest the dangerous drift towards war and is inconsistent with its election pledges, the House is of opinion that the issue should be submitted to the country without delay.”

MAIN MOTIVE MISSED GENERAL ELECTION LABOUR SPEAKER TAUNTED LONDON, April 4. In his speech in the House of Commons, the Prime Minister taunted Mr. Greenwood with speaking for over an hour without once mentioning the General Election, which was the motive for the Labour censure motion. He followed this by bluntly telling the Labour Party that nothing would create greater consternation in their ranks than a General Election. Many Labour members regard a motion of censure at this stage as bad tactics politically, and therefore did not take the debate seriously, while supporters of the Government witnessed Mr. Chamberlain give a debating performance worthy of his father at his best, and accorded him an ovation which lasted for five minutes—one of the most remarkable demonstration.; in the House for years.