BRITAIN AND THE LEAGUE

Evening Star, Issue 19661, 14 September 1927, Page 9

BRITAIN AND THE LEAGUE

FOREIGN SECRETARY EXPLAINS INFLUENCE AND SUPPORT PROMISED CONFIDENCE IN FUTURE. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. RUGBY, Septcmoor 13. (Received September 14, at noon.) Sir Austen Chamberlain received about 250 journalists from all parts of the world at his hotel at Geneva last evening, and discussed some of the questions raised during the present Assembly. Tie said that lie realised that the entire Assembly could not be expected to adopt the view expressed by him in his speech on Saturday, but he impressed that from the Englishmen's standpoint it was a reasonable attitude, for the British Empire was unwilling to make engagements she might bo unable to fulfil. ft was unlikely that members of the League would be iu agreement lor a long time cm the question of the protocol, and lie did not sec any advantage in proceeding with a discussion which, to his mind, would not bring about any lurUier success or practical results. That was not because Englishmen looked only on the practical side of things, nor was it because Englishmen questioned the ideals of the League. “We have based all our foreign policy and our foreign relations on tho League,” ho said. “All our foreign relations arc inspired by the ideals of tho League, and we are always willing to help as much as we possibly can the policy of general appeasement and of peace between neighbors.”

Britain had no compromise to make in the matter of her policy, which was that of attaining the gradual establishment of friendly relations between nations. Anywhere where Britain had been able to better the world she had done so. Everywhere her influence had been placed at the sendee of the League of Nations. Every year after every League meeting war became more difficult to launch and more difficult to justify. “We have not yet,” ho said, “ reached the point where Avar is impossible, but a nation which would make war without the consent ol the League would start on a dangerous path that would cost it very dearly, II we look back ten years w<* can see the progress that has been made, and on account of that progress it is difficult to understand the uneasiness that marked the beginning of the Assembly, but which was dissipated as the debates proceeded. At Locarno, before the day of the treaty signature, I said to the British journalists that I was soberly optimistic. To-day I am soberly optimistic, and have confidence in the League’s future. Let ns base that confidence on facts. My country will do nil it can.”