The Guardian (And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times.) THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 1921 FOREIGN POLICY.

Hokitika Guardian, 31 January 1924, Page 2

The Guardian (And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times.) THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 1921 FOREIGN POLICY.

Tun Prime Minister of Britain is also Foreign Minister, and Mr MacDonald on that account is going to be doubly in the limelight at this juncture. Air MacDonald assumes office at a time when Britain must make some decisive move iu relation to European affairs in particular. The Prime Minister Ik 1 - lieves in open diplomacy and has begun already by taking a prominent Parisian newspaper into flis confidence and addressing really all concerned with hix views on fhe situation created by the action of Franco in rue. occupation of the Ruhr, His exposition of the affair was very fair, and needs must give food for thought to all the nations concerned. Britain out of self-defence for her own interests must take a definite course. Pliantly Britain has submitted to France doing as sbe pleasod and obviously injuring British interests. That point was made plain over and over again, but. France was pleased to ignore the position and continue to do toe greatest barm to her best friend of Hie war period. Afr MacDonald's remarks have a more bellicose ring than any of his predecessors, though we may expect that ho would not be disposed to precipitate a new war without oxhausing all the avenues possible for an equitable settlement. The remarks of the Prime .Minister will give rise to ti.e closest concern in Em ope. Here is a fresh mind brought to judgment on the position. The Minister is one who has not the political leanings of those who went before. There is not any question of caste or observance of tradition. It is a new mind, exercising n will on the, situation for Die first time. It is a mind giving vent to views of a party' who abhor war and who believe in the brotherhood of nations. Many of the Labor leaders are internationalists, and do not favor one nation before another. Even Afr MacDonald ha. spoken of being an Englishman by accident, but all the same in the cruciui test of facts, as they are, lie can sec the plight of his country, and his countrymen, and realise that others would take and have taken advantage of Britain because of the .supineness of her statesmen. The peace at any price policy does not pay a nation whicn has anything to lose. A nation, as an individual, must seek to preserve the rights legitimately won and fairly held. So it is that Mr MacDonald was encouraged by the leading questions of the enterprising pressman responsible for the interview, to speak his mind, and declare the attitude of Britain towards French action in language which could not lie misunderstood. Replying to the interviewer's enquiry for the reasons for the widoly-prevalent irritation felt' by the English people against France, Afr AfacDonald said that the British people reproached France, first, with the occupation of the Ruhr, which they believe to be te principal cause of Britain’s economic distress, and, with not having enough consideration for the general interests of Europe, or the particular interests of Britain; and also with giving moral and financial encouragement to smaller notions in the. matter of armaments,

which tended inevitably to lead to another war. .Mr MacDonald did not wish to emphasise the. British business men’s anxiety regarding the prospects of French industrial combinations, or the wide scope for the people’s fears arising out of the extent of the French aerial armaments, but the British people woie alarmed, and were beginning to ask whether alliances should be sought elsewhere, though the Labourites did not believe that armaments and alliances made for security. 'I he Prime Minister as a parting shot remarked that the British public "as alarmed at France’s great aerial armaments. The French public have not been slow to recognise the gravity of the situation. One of the Paris papers believes that because the BiitTsli requirements cannot be reconciled with the Franco-Belgian policy, a violent rupture is possible. But it is noticeable, too, that tbo Belgian Minister has hastened to Paris to consult the French authorities, presumably upon a previous conference between Mr MacDona,d and the Belgian representative in London. The situation as it is developing will overshadow many other aspects of Home politics when Parliament reassembles shortly. The occasion will he one when Liberals and Conservatives will unite in giving Labor all reasonable support for a definite li w of action if Mr MacDonald's foreign policy aims at re-establishing British prestige and trade in Europe.