THE "GREAT" POWERS.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 67, 11 December 1937, Page 4

THE "GREAT" POWERS.

There is something almost of the Hitler or the Mussolini note about the British Prime Minister's "warning to the world ' ' Of the strength of the British Empire. "We realise, ' ' he went on, "that by onr partnership with the great democracies^of the oversea dominions we are raised from the status of a fourth-rate Power to be the heart of an empire whieh stands in the front rank of all the Powers in the world." Detached from their context, these read like rather boastful words, such as we are not accustomed to hear from the lips of a highly placed British statesman. But we have to remember the oc&asion on which they were uttered, a demonstration, as we are told, in connection with the Empire Unity Campaign. Thus they were no doubt primarily intended as an acknowledgment on behalf of the Mother Country of the part her daughter dominions have played and are expected to still play in placing and keeping her in the forefront of the world 's great Powers. Possibly by the more modest among us it may be regarded as a rather over-gracious and over-handsome acknowledgement. At the same time, however, there is doubtless a good deal of truth in wliat Mr. Chamberlain said, for without her dominions and other oversea dependenGies, from which so great a part of her financial and material strength has been drawn in past years, Great Britain would not have been ahle to attain or maintain the forward place she' occupies among the nations of the Old World, though, looking backward over history, it is difficult to conceive of her as in any event beipg nothing better tlian a fourth-rate Power, as Mr. Chamberlain suggests, To what extent Mr, Chamberlain, when he spoke as he did, may have had in mind Great Britain 's vast rearmament programme it is difficult to guess from the brief and isolated extracts from his speeeh that are sent to us. But it has to he confessed that the Empire oversea has as yet made no very great eontribution to the measures that are thus being taken - for its defence, New Zealand in this respect being probably as dilatory as any of the self-governing dominions, to whicli in particular Mr, Chamberlain makes reference. And this gives us pause to think that, after all, in the estimation of the world tne greatness of a nation depends almost entirely upon its fighting strength. ' Without that being well developed and upheld it. may soon lose its position of influence among the Great Powers. Siiice the close of the World War Great Britain herself has provided an outstanding example of this, for there can be no question that her disarmament policy, which she tried in vain to get other countries to follow, aceounts very largely for the scant respect that has been quite obviously shown for her by countries that have pursued the reverse eourse. Neither Mussolini nor Hitler would liave been allowed to assert himself as he has done as a eonstant threatener of the " world 's peace had it not been for Great Britain allowing her fighting strength to languish while they were piling up their armaments by land, sea and air. Nor would Japan have been allowed to treat British interests in the Far East as cavalierly as she has done.

.This is, of course, a rather sorry commentary to have to make, especially so soon after the experiences of the Great War, on the condition of civilisation in this the twentieth eentury of the Christian era. But there it stands stark and naked for all to see-^a country 's influence in the councils of the nations still depends, as in past ages, upon its ability to baek it up with its fighting forces. A still greater and more pitiahle reproach to our 20th. eentury civilisation is, of course, to be found in the complete savagery and barbarity with which war is conducted, spreading all its destructive horrors among civilian populations. As the Home Secretary, Sir Samuel Hoare, said a few days ago, when diseussing plans for the evacuation of non-combatants from cities and towns, "we are setting baek the clock tliousands of years in making women and children disperse over the country "in remotest districts and dressing them up in gas-proof suits that will make them look lik© monsters from the dark ages. ' ' It was, too, only a day or two earlier that we had another British Minister stressing the need for taking prec-autions to prevent the poisoning of water supplies and the dissemination of disease germs. Civilisation may well be proud of tbis eentury 's wonderful advances in seientific knowledge and its application to beneficent purposes, but it cannot but be heartily ashamed of the uses tq whicli "Great" Powers are putting it> or are evidently expected to put it, in time of war.