The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. THURSDAY, MAY 28, 1931. A NEW PEACE GOSPEL.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 May 1931, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. THURSDAY, MAY 28, 1931. A NEW PEACE GOSPEL.

Si’KAicxxo through the “Daily Express,” Lord Beaverbrook has sunuenly forced himself into the “spotlight” of the political stage once more by vehement a.ttack upon the League m Nations Union. Very few will be found to approve the Beaverbroon description of the Union as a bony ol “well meaning but muddle-headed men and women” who are playing with dreams and refusing to face realities The worst enemies that the League has to contend against are the men who bailed it s advent with the confident prediction that it would speedly render war impossible for the future. But though the League cannot be expected to perfrom this quite incredible feat, it has done splendid service by helping to make the very idea of war outrageous and repugnant to the civilised world, and its work lias thus been of inestimable value to the enu.-e of world peace. But Beaverbrook bolds that I'ranee has captured the .League “lock, stock and barrel,” and that this should be sufficient reason for Britain to leave jt severely alone. His objection to France is that she is aiming at the hegemony of Europe, and that she is determined “to hold Germany and Austria "in chainsr M Flrairice ■iii.s'ists I tm seeing that the terms of the Peace i are enforced against the Central Powers; But if this is not doiie, it 1 is certain that Germany will do her | best to regain all, and more than all. 1 that she lost in the Great War. Lord Beaverbrook also appeals against j France to the natural desire of the j British producer and exporter to find i a market for British goods. For how can British trade recover itself unless its German markets are restored, and how can Germany regain its lost prosperity so long as France, backed by the League of Nations, stands in the way? But, apart from France’s enmity, even if Germany regained to the full the prosperity of pre-war days, that would be no guarantee that Britain would benefit much by its recoverv For the Germans are bent on .securing their markets as far a, s possible for their own producers, and they are adjusting their fiscal policy to that endAs Siegfried says, the ideal of the European State is to become as far ns possible self-supporting, and such a policy would leave little room in Continental markets for British goods. Even Lord Beaverbrook, in his “mud-dle-headed” way, has conceived some faint idea of this important truth. For his advocacy of “Empire Free Trade” is based primarily on the indisputable- fact that Britain lias lost ground in her European markets in re'ent, years, and she can therefore indemnity herself only by securing as much custom as possible from the Dominion. We 'sympathise entirely, concludes the Auckland Star, with Lord Beaverbrook’s desire to see inter. Imperial trade enlarged and Britain’s hold upon the colonial markets secured, with due regard for our producers. But this does not justify either his prejudices against France or hjs absurd attack upon the League of Nations.