ESSENTIALS OF PEACE

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21418, 9 March 1935, Page 15

ESSENTIALS OF PEACE

! —o — I THE LEAGUE STILL j THE IDEAL BRITISH DEFEND-: I'LAN j EXPLAINFI) ! i rilbli 'TKM 1 I- V. I til 'Received March >'i, 5.5 p.m.) RUGBY. Mnrch 7. ; Mr R. A. Eden, Lord Privy Seal, | referred to the recent White Paper •on defence in a speech delivered at i Swindon to-night. He declared that i there was no security in armament | comparable with that which could ! he derived from the effective workj ing of the collective peace system, | and that the foreign policy of the I British Government was unalterably based upon the League of Nations as being the most effective mechanism yet devised to operate such a system. The moderate measures of nai tional defence provided for in the I While Paper did not constitute in j themselves any departure from that i policy, while the British Govern- ' ment's devotion to the League and jto the collective peace system had i recently been many times demonstrated" Nevertheless, peace could jnol be fully assured until all nations j were members of the League and ! were inspired in national j policy by the spirit of the covenant. : The truth was that the collective : peace system was at present in a 1 state of evolution, and until all jnations shared equally the desire to j co-operate in the working of that 'svstem those Governments who beilieved in it had an obligation not ! only toward one another but toj ward their own people to take ele- | inentary precautions. : Nervousness in Europe ! The British Government was at : present endeavouring to bring !about a settlement to meet the ner- ! vousness which had certainly increased in Europe during the last few years. The fears, suspicions, and ambitions which darkened Europe's political horizon were af immense significance to the British people. Science had modified Great Britain's geographical isolation and the consequences of European events were felt more directly, although the political outlook of the British people had not as yet undergone any similar change. The spirit of comparative detachment which had survived from the days of their isolation enabled them the better to contribute to pacification, which was as much in their own interests as in that of any Continental nation. While increasing anxiety had meant increasing armaments in manv countries of Europe and else-whei-e. Great Britain's armaments, compared either with the immediate post-war period or the period before the war, showed a reduction. ! As an example Mr Eden stated I that the strength of the British I Navy in 1914 was 2.Hi11,000 tons and now'it was 1,1110.000 tons, while the personnel had been reduced from 132.000 men to 92,3311. At the end of the war Great Britain had the greatest air force, but now it came onlv fifth among the air powers. The British Army was little more than a police force. The truth was that the expenditure involved in the present proposals was made necessary because elementary measures of national defence had been delayed in the hope that an international agreement would eventually make them unnecessary. Mr Eden emphasised that if the international situation was modified these defence measures could be modified also.