Early 1936, Great Britain entered on a large-scale rearmament programme, which was in line with the people's wish to enforce peace even with arms.
The next disharmony "expressed itself in the civil war in Spain, which became the proving-ground of the Fascist forces on the one side as against the Leftists, supported by Soviet Russia on the other side. Here again the British principle was nonintervention.
While the Spanish conflict was still in full eruption, the Ro Berlin axis extended to Tokyo. TI was an avowedly anti-Comintern pact and its first fruit was the so-called China Incident—the large-scale Sino-Japanese war which is the most terrible outbreak since the Great War, Despite her enormous interests involved and the damage to them, Great Britain has not been shaken from her policy to abstain from participating. This principle has extended itself into the economic and financial sphere, as witnessed'by the fact that she has refused loans to China, which might be misused for war purposes.
The Spanish and Sino-Japanese con-fiots continued unconcluded, while tension arose again in Europe, Germany made a shock-descent upon Austria and presented England and France with a fait accompli, with Italy balked by her axial partner.
Prior to this, England had made peaceful agreement with Italy under the Chamberlain leadership.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.