EDUCATION IN FOREIGN POLICY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 65, 19 March 1915, Page 4

EDUCATION IN FOREIGN POLICY.

Mr Arnold Bennett writes interestingly in a London paper just to hand regarding the question of Britain’s Foreign Policy and the need for educating the people upon it. Tn the ( ■course of his article he says:—Something, though probably not a great deal, will he done within a couple of years or so to democratize to a cer-

tain extent the Diplomatic Corps and Foreign Office, and all that is done will be to the good. But even if ten times as much is done a.s those acquainted with the ways of politics feel themselves entitled to hope for, the result upon the future ol Kurope will he trilling unless the democracy itself begins to interest itself in foreign polities. The outcry for the democratic control of foreign policy will ho an empty and an absurd outcry until the democracy has acquired a working know'ledge of foreign policy. The machinery for democratic control exists, did wo hut choose to employ it. If we are not | in control, it is because we are not interested enough to be in control. If! the high traffic of this country with other countries is conducted in secret, it is because we are content to remain in ignorance. II it is conducted for. other ends and ideals than democratic ends and ideals, it is because we have not yet. realised that the happiness ofj our country depends on the happiness of all countries, that isolation is done with, and that an altercation between an Ambassador and a Foreign Secretary about a convention may be just as important to our daily welfare as an altercation between the Government and the Opposition about an Insurance or an Education Bill. We must intelligently follow events. We must read. We must demand text-books and expository articles, and, above all, we must insist upon the lucid teaching of modern history in our secondary schools and evening centres. The caste that in spite of our institution rules ns as much as it dares, will be quick to comprehend that a change lias occurred or is occurring, and the day of secrecy in the chancelleries will expire. At present wc get the treatment we deserve—that is to say, the treatment accorded to children.