The Dominions and the Pact.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18419, 27 June 1925, Page 14

The Dominions and the Pact.

When Mr Coatcs declared the other day that Xew Zealand was quite content to accept whatever arrangement the British Government might make for the safeguarding' of peace in Europe we said that Xew Zealand would approve of his attitude. For it seemed to us, as it must have seemed to most people, incredible that any British Government, and especially the present Government, would enter into any engagement which, on becoming operative, would not be willingly supported by all the States of the Empire. This still seems to us to be incredible, hut it is easy to believe that many Xew Zealanders have read with some uneasiness Mr Austen Chamberlain's speeches in tho House of Commons as reported in yesterday's paper. The. political correspondents of tho London Press, we are told, agree that Mr Chamberlain's main statement was

" too general to be really informative," and that hi.s winding-up speech "was •' no more enlightening than his opening one.'' There is some comfort in these suggestions that no very serious obligation has jictunlly been incurred by the British Government, and there would be more comfort still in Mr Chamberlain's declaration that "no " treaty or draft treaty exists " if he had not persistently referred to "the "Pact" although defending it as entailing nothing more than is entailed by the Covenant of the League of Nations. The Foreign Office must, of course, know better than any outside critic what is the real condition of Europe and what dangers are threatening peace, but there is a very general opinion throughout the Empire that Britain cannot better use her power and influence for European peace than by keeping her hands free. But the actual rolo of Britain in Europe is much less important to citizens of the Empire than the authority with which she chooses it, and , Now Zealanders will fully endorse the opinions expressed by Conservative members of the House of Commons —that " Britain " must see that her foreign policy was " such that if ever she had to fight " again fov a good cause the Dominions " of their own free will would support " her as they did in 1914," that " the " Empire's policy must be fashioned in "sympathy with the Dominions' feel- " ings," and, above all, that " the "alliance of tlie British Commonwealth "is more important than any Pact." It is disturbing to hear Mr Chamberlain seeking to reassure the Dominions by reminding them that they "cannot "bo committed except by their own " Governments, acting with the support "of their, own Parliaments." We all know that quite well. We know that if Britain becomes involved in war we can remain neutral, and can hope, that the enemy will find it worth his while, as it well might be, to recognise our neutrality. But we know also that if such a position arose the Empire would cease to exist. The " Daily Express," whose opinion is. quoted to-day, was writing with the full text of Mr Chamberlain's speech before it, and its comment upon Mr Chamberlain's mention of the Dominions' liberty of action makes it clear that the crucial passage has not been misreported in the cable message. Mr Chamberlain, it says, "is the first Foreign Secretary to " admit diplomatic disunity as a prin- " ciple in Imperial policy." The problem of the Foreign Office is, of course, a veiy difficult one: it is dealing with Governments' which, if they cannot obtain the arrangement they desire, can embarrass Britain in regions far away from Europe. But difficulties in the Asian and African areas of British policy are, in a long view, far less important than difficulties within the Empire.