DEMOCRACY AND FOREIGN POLICY.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 204, 14 September 1937, Page 4

DEMOCRACY AND FOREIGN POLICY.

"To-day there is cause for some misgiving as to the capacity of democracy to liandle dolicato problems of intcrnational relations," said Yiscount Halifax in his speech at the Ashridge Conference. "The tendency, of wbich there are signs to-day, to import into our judgmenls on issues of foroign policy, our likes and dislikes of forms » of government elsewhere is full of danger, and it is not necessary to stress the difficulties that can be created for the best Foreign Secretary by injudicious questions in Parliament or by well-intentioned but ill-informed attempts to cut knots that it is often, the business of statesmanship painfully to untie. I conceive that in nothing will democracy be more severely tested than by its ability to exercisc the restraint that is essential if the country is to exercise its full influence abroad, by presenting in that field a united front. '.'On the domestic side, the vital necessity for the well-being of democracy is that it should learn to distinguish the genuine from the counterfeit in the wares that are submitted for its approval.' The world to-day is the victim of a system of subtle and eeaseless propaganda — su^nressing, exaggerating, distorting; and atmospheres are all the time being created that are subversive of rational thouglit. A background is establisk«d against wbich identical facts appear so different as to be almost tmrecognisable, and tbe task of finding solutions for difficulties arising is re«4ered inftnitely more complex. On tbose who supply news or other material ^or judgment, wbether through the Press or broadcast, the heavy responsibilify that must always accompany power must be beld to reat.'^ ,