THE DECLARATION OF LONDON

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1041, 2 February 1911, Page 4

THE DECLARATION OF LONDON

Since we first wrote upon the controversy over the Declaration of London several of our contemporaries have been giving their attention to subject, but the Government still maintains a strict silence. Dii. Pindlay, it is true, has offered some personal observations upon tho Declaration, but< these are worth very little, as they were obviously the fruifc of a little hasty reading; and in any event an exact appreciation of ths total effect, for good or evil, of the new rules is possible only to one who combines an expert knowledgo of naval affairs with a keen understanding of international relations. The Declaration has a different significance for Britain as a neutral from its significance for Britain as a belligerent, and who outside the 'circle of experts in naval and foreign policy can say which interests are the higher—Britain's interests asa neutral, or her interests" as a belligerent? Who but a profound ; student can say whether in the next big war Britain . will be a belligerent .or a neutral? The latest defences of the Declaration charge tho critics of it with suppressing the usefulness to a neutral Britain of the absolute immunity now extended to foodstuffs carried in neutral bottoms to neutral ports. But nobody has kept in the background so obvious an advantage. If the critics have boon silent on the point, that h obviously because none of them thought it necessary to insist upon a plain fact that is not in dispute. There would be far more justice in tho counter-charge that the defenders of tho Declaration have refused to face fairly the case of Britain as a belligerent. It is' with this case that the hostile critics arc concerned. As we have said, a total estimate of tho potentialities of tho Declaration is impossible to the layman, but there- is really no room for disagreement upon the fact that when sho is a belligerent Britain incurs an enormous peril, which a European enemy cannot inertr, under tho clause that renders liable' to capture and destruction foodstuffs bound for a

'/fortified place or other place serving as a base for the armed forces of the enemy." In war time, every port m Britain would bo "a base" for every other place, and foodstuffs for any British port would in war imo bo open to capture and destruction. Germany, on the other hand, could get in all her supplies by having them consigned to a neutral European port. As the Mqnchcstcr Guardian of- December 17 observes, Sin Edwabd Grey has never succeeded in meeting this criticism. It is obvious, therefore, that in the event of a war in. which Britain were engaged, our meat, butter, and elicose export trade- would be deitroyed. .

This being so, it is plain that our representative at the Imperial Conference will be bound to interest himself'in the discussion of Australia's resolutions. But it is another point upon which the Prime Minister owes a statement tot-he public. Nobody will doubt that, so far as he is able, he will earnestly put forward, the interests of-New Zealand; but we think_ that he should not allow either himself or the public to forget that no principle that will be raised at. the Conference will be comparable in importance with the principle implied in the Australian resolutions, viz., that the colonies should how have a voice in the settlement of Britain's general foreign policy. This issue was. nearly raised, only to be finally dropped after a scrambling quarrel in which the heat stifled the chance of any statesmanlike examination of principles, in connection with the establishment of the condominium in: the New Hebrides. The present case opens up broader and more important tracts of Imperial policy; it may mean the setting up of a current in Imperial affairs that will have the very widest results in the future. The Prime Minister ought therefore to give the country a lead, or an opportunity to give him a lead, by announcing how far he intends k> go in asserting the right of the 5 colonies to shape ; the foreign policy of Britain.