The Waikato Times. THURSDAY, MAY 2, 1935. BRITAIN’S FOREIGN POLICY

Waikato Times, Volume 117, Issue 19565, 2 May 1935, Page 6

The Waikato Times. THURSDAY, MAY 2, 1935. BRITAIN’S FOREIGN POLICY

Mr Ramsay MacDonald, the British Prime Mmister. has giv an assurance to the Dominion Prime Ministers now m the debate on foreign affairs set down for the House o to-day will provide a clear indication of the Governm P Profound interest will be centred in Ministers’ speeches, foi it is generally conceded in Europe that Britain bolds a kej P and her decisions are fateful. M. Stalin, the instance, a short time ago declared that the issue o P lay in the tiny island of England.” This may be somewhat to Britain, but there is a certain amount of truth m c ° a for Britain has frequently been the pivot of world po l i > . the war on many occasions she has been instrumental m avertu g serious trouble.

To-day the eyes of the world are centred on Germany, has inaugurated a race for armament supremacy which cannot ignored, for a race in armaments, as experience has prove , can have one ending. The fact that it is launched shows sinister desig .

Britain has shown beyond the possibility of dmpu 6 a hopes are centred on disarmament and the preservation o P ea1 * By precept and example she has endeavoured to turn e a en 1 of the nations from war to peace, but even the most pacific Mims have been compelled to face facts, and admit that oircums.tances are against them: that their hopes have to be abandoned, and t Britain, however reluctantly, will be compelled to re-arm, wmie at the same time making it abundantly clear that she vr suppor any and every movement tending to check such expenditure.

That the British Government views recent developments in Europe with considerable anxiety is evident, and it is devoutly to e hoped that the ominous clouds which appear tq he gathering on e horizon will be dispersed; that Europe will not again become insane.

There is surely only one objective in civilised popular opinion, and that is the prevention of another world war and the establishment of peace on a firm basis. The noble words of Edmund Burke on international conciliation are eternally true. The pioposition is peace. Not peace through the medium of war. . . • not peace to depend on the juridical determination of perplexing questions or the precise marking of the shadowy boundaries of a complex government. It is simple peace, sought in its natural course and in its ordinary haunts. It is peace sought in the spirit of peace, and lai in principles purely pacific..”

It is peace such as this that “ the tiny island of England ” is at the moment striving to secure and preserve.