Nov. 6.
Mr. Anthony Eden's speech at Skipton on" Friday brought British thoughts on forel affairs refreshingly back to the plane of realities. Admirably but incidentally, Sir John Simon jand Mr. J. H. Thomas, a few days ago, gave the text which Mr. Eden used to such stood purpose His pronouncement. had about i the ring which the British people have been accustomed to expect in their statesmen's discussion of world affairs—the ring of $0- priety in thought and of loyalty in attitude. It showed that, despite the whirling: perplexities in the stream of international opinion, the British Foreign Office refuses to bert principles of continuity and consistency which alone can form the basis of national policy. Confronted by upheavals in the wake of acute economic depression, some nations, which formerly relied oh the doctrines of ce-operation and intere] ence, have for the time being appeared to falter in their faith. They have plunged into an excess of nationalism which has communicated its frenzy to the less equable political elements in Great Britain. Newspaper magnates who see virtue in the support of catchwords possess-Intrinsic antiquity of inspiration, ing a specious novelty but, yet an have gloried in the defiance of such tiresome obligations as the maintenance of pledges and contumely, has-been associated the whole paraphernalia of negotiation and diplomatic di: cussion. Exploiting the ephemoral ecstasy which goes with short memories, these blind leaders of the blind have brought the wheel a full circle. They laud the rightness, of might and pour scorn on. the folly which seeks to control the fiendish ingenuity of death-lealing machines by the spiritual judgment of nations. The travail of the War years has been forgotten. Perhaps, just because the reaction against it was So vehement a decade ago, the swing of the pendulum has operated to elevate War into the Positi jon of an avenging deity to whom, willy-nilly, mankind in suicidal fanaticism must surrender.
That is the only interpretation of the wholesale repudiation of good faith which, by the crazy drive of their own peculiar logic, the assailants of the League have embraced. It is true that they thunder against War which they imagine—quite falsely—the supporters of the League would invoke to repair damaged bulwarks. Tt is none-the-less true that pursuit of their arid negation would plunge the world into war as certainly as night follows day. Mr. Eden brushes on one side the sophistry which argues that international obi tions endanger national security, He bluntly points out that the Treaty of Locarno ly in fact protection against War, not an incitement to War, as its now bit ter critics (who formerly were its. slavish sycophants). have. the effrontery to pretend, And the Treaty of Locarno is interwoven with the machinery of the League ~<a considered—statement of which a present may be gracefully made to those who Would solve the passing crises of the moment by leaving the League high and dry in an anything but hero fe abandonment. Reproach of the nations which have held aloof from the League is not Implied by continued reliance on its ood offices especially as in many respects, some of those ni Lions assist in preserving the League's general guidance in international affairs—notably in the discussion of disarmament and in the machinery devised to handle economic problems. Nor necessary to press importunately for the revision of withdrawal which have lately been taken as the text for preaching the League's impotence or turpitude. Mr, Eden's specific reference to Germany's position was signi ficant in its "quiet, confidence "The situation, no doubt, will be redeemed", No discerning supporter of the League idea can be 80 foolish as to hold that conditions, at times, may not make the straining of loyalties difficult. Human organisations are liable fo human weaknesses and human error. Both are reparable but neither justifies a despairing [sabotage of the machine, Perhaps, in the enthusiasm' of its early years, the League caught too readily the volatile attention of the amateur statesman. Now. when it has to face the growing pains of adolescence, the skilled diplomatist rather than the eager zealot_is the better minister to its efficiency. That is a matter for consideration and. adjustment in the light of experience.
Prophets alone can say when ther the crisis through which the world is passing has reached the height of its severity or whether it will be succeeded, after a tem-orary' recoil by an even worse dislocation of civilisation's plan. Statesmen are not prophets. The wise commentator avoids' prophecy. It is, however, pertinent fo point out that the League with the whole fabric of international ce-operation—is being tested by conditions of extreme rigour. Mr. Eden's calm acceptance of that ordeal is, welcome; it ranges Great Britain on the side of the evolutionists, when raging through the world today, the revolutionists are attempting to hoist their standard for the nations to follow—organised and ill-organised alite. Extreme exponents of immediate disarmament prescribe the des-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.