FOREIGN POLICY AND IMPERIAL DEFENCE.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 102, 17 May 1937, Page 6

FOREIGN POLICY AND IMPERIAL DEFENCE.

The Imperial Conference, which was formally opened on Friday laist under the presidency of the British Prime Minister, will proceed to-morrow to its serious deliberations. It is an altogether fitting thing that Mr. Baldwin, before la.ying down the cares of his high office, as he is expected very shortly to do, should occupy the chair at an asaemblage representaftive of the member nations of the British Commonwealth which he has so long, so capably and so devotedly served. He has helped very materially to hold the Empire togehter and to see . the Motherland, from which it still derives the main souree of its existence, through one of the most trying periods of he^ long history. It may also well be thought that it is fortunate for the oversea Dominions that he should have the conduct of proceedings. For it is quite possible that their contentions might not have met with the same full sympathetic consideration from his entirely businesslike Chancellor of the Exchequer, who is generally accepted as the one to succeed him as Prime Minister. That his influence upon the discussions, and upon those engaged in them, will be all the greater because it will be the la'st of such occasions upon - which he will appear in his present capacity, if indeed in any capacity, nmy be taken for granted. That influence too, may a^suredly be taken, as being all for the good in the way sf securing mutual consideration among delegates whose countries' interests may not run altogether along parallel lines.

It has already been made pretty clear that the main subjects for discussion will be the questions of foreign policy and Imperial defence — questions which, unhappily, as the world stands to-day have very much in common. At few times has the shaping of Great Britaan's foreign policy depended so much upon the ability to protect the Empire against tforejgn aggression. That is a position that the representatives of the oversea Dominions must recognise from the outset and be prepared to plasy their full part in it. If, as seems to be the case, some of the Dominions are bent on securing a voice in the decisions of Great Britain's foreign policy, then they must realise that they must also take - full share in placing her in a position to carry that policy through. As for the competence of the Governments of the Dominions to assist in the framing of a foreign policy for the Empire there cannot but be very grave doubts. In none of them can there be any, full conception of the intricacies and complexities that go to make up the diplomatic relattions oi the European countries from which it is practically impossible for Great Britain to detach herself and still maintain her statug among the Great Powers. She has already more than once pursued a policy of isolation, but it has always proved impracticable for her to continue it for long. The nearest to it that has ever been found practicafble has been to achieve a position in which she might hold the "balance of power" in Europe in her own hands. It is, in all likelihood, towards this position that Great "Britain is now working up, but no doubt always with the alternative in ultimate view of inducing the Continental Powers to accept and, in some form, make effective the principle of "collective security" which she has so long and strenuously - advoeated. Her rearmament just now is probaibly dictated hoth to establish the security o£ the Empire and at the sametime to bring other nations to realise the folly of attempting to build up a new world based on the relative armed strengths of individual countries. These arei big questions, and it will be with the greatest interest that, at a distance, the peoples of all the Dominions will watch how their delegates alpproach them.