Churchill Extols Ministry's Work

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 200, 12 November 1927, Page 1

Churchill Extols Ministry's Work

“KEPT THE PEACE” ] BRITAIN’S STEADY PROGRESS ; By Cable.—Press Association. — Copyright, j LONDON, Thursday. ] The breakdown of the naval arms limitation conference at Geneva ' was to-day referred to in the House of Lords by Lord Wester 1 Wemyss. He said: “Our naval forces are in no sense too great to secure the safety of our trade routes, and to reduce them would be to take a risk no Government would accept. We are bound by the Declaration of Paris, to which neither the United States nor Japan were signatories. “The command of the seas is essential to Britain. Were that once lost our resistance to an enemy would be broken down, and we would be cut off from the world and incapable of maintaining ourselves. This does not apply in the case of any other country. But, so long as we adhere to the Declaration of Paris, our geographical position is no asset to us. A war, when once it has broken out, must be prolonged.” Lord Wemyss said he thought, however, that in certain circumstances Britain’s naval armaments might be reduced without jeopardising her sea communications. . He said he believed there would ultimately not be peace through disarmament, but disarmament through peace. FOUNDATION OF PEACE Bari Stanhope, Civil Lord of the Admiralty, in replying, said the British Fleet was one of the greatest foundations of the peace of the world. It would be impossible to withdraw from ! the Declaration of Paris without ad- : mitting a dangerous precedent that a j party could withdraw from a treaty ! at any time. The only other way | would be by the consent of the other signatories, or by inducing the Assembly of the League of Nations to revise or reconstruct the treaty as inapplicable under Article 19 of tlie covenant. Viscount Haldane said he thought the First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. W. C. Bridgeman, had spoken at Geneva too much as a seaman. A reduction in naval armaments should be discussed on a wider basis than that of mere naval efficiency. He said he wished that before the conference had taken place the British Government had been aided by the Committee of Imperial Defence, not by the Admiralty, and that it had set out fully Britain’s plain necessities. POSITION NOT HOPELESS It was a mistake to have gone to Geneva without a preliminary agreement, but the position was not hopeless. They must continue their efforts in the direction of disarmament, which was the only hope of bringing about large economies. The Bari of Balfour said the abolition of the Declaration of Paris would not be to the interests of Britain. Moreover, diplomatically, it -would be wholly and utterly impossible. It was a difficult and a delicate subject, and a Parliamentary discussion of it might lead to discord, not to harmony. He said he did not believe the differences of opinion between the naval Powers were irreconcilable, but it would be difficult to bring about ft. reconciliation. ■Without the British Fleet France’s resistance to Germany in the Great War could not have lasted a year. The House adjourned at this stage.—A. and N.Z.-Sun.