BRITAIN WANTS PEACE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 620, 23 March 1929, Page 9

BRITAIN WANTS PEACE

IDEAL OF ALL PARTIES NO CHANGE IN POLICY British Official Wireless RUGBY, Thursday. The Prime Minister. Mr. Baldwin, and the Secretary ol State for Foreign Affairs, Sir Austen Chamberlain, were among the guests who were entertained by the Foreign Press Association in London last evening. In the course of his speech Mr. Baldwin, referring to the coming general election, said: “Whatever Government is in power in this country, and to whatever party it belongs, the broad lines of Britain’s foreign policy will not be greatly changed. “The ultimate object of this country, and of all parties alike, is peace, and it is only in conditions of peace that we can develop our own resources, and the resources of our Empire, and can make, so far as we are able, our contribution, as other nations do, to the welfare of mankind.” Sir Austen described the growth in confidence and strength of the League of Nations, and the increased cooperation from outside of the United States. “Any nation which recklessly breaks peace will incur moral condemnation that no nation, however great its power, can safely face,” he said. “I am an idealist, but I try always not to lose myself in the pursuit of ideals beyond our reach. “It is not as an idealist, but as a realist, that X say that we have not yet erected, and perhaps never shall erect, an absolute unclimable barrier against war.

“But the world has made progress. Aggression is becoming more difficult and the guarantees and securities for peace are sensibly increased.”