'A valued correspondent sends this journal a letter and Ieaflet concerning an agitation in Great Britain for the adoption by the government of as completely an isolationist policy as that which is still being pressed for by some sections of political thought in the United States. The British Empire Referendum is a document which speaks for itself and should not be taken too seriously. Those, who support the idea that Great Britain should return to a policy of icy isolation, apparently forget what would probably have happened from 1914 onwards if the Government had not) entered into a series of agreements which enabled a strong resistance to be offered to Germany. There were some who argued at that time that it was foolish for Great Britain to go to the assistance of France and Belgium, but it was from the strength found in collective action that the German military venture] was brought {0 failure. What would have happened had there been no understanding with France, so that France would have had to meet the German onslaught with the small] help that Belgium would have been able to afford her? It requires no very vivid imagitation to realize what might have been the result, and the consequent threat which might have "been levelled against Great Britain. Had it been possible for Germany to have picked off the Allies one by one the time might have come when Great Britain would have had also to meet her single handed and to have had more than a little difficulty to protect herself and her Empire. From the practical experience of the past it is apparent that defensive alliances are important factors securing the world peace. They may serve to establish a balance of power, sufficient to restrain nations in whose foreign policy the desire for war may play an important part, for no nation will engage in hostilities if it is convinced that the strength opposed against her is too great. The principle behind defensive alliances is exactly the same as that underlying the doctrine of collective security. The latter's application is wider, for theoretically it should bring the whole world in arms against an aggressor.
It has not, however, proved as successful in recent years for a very large number of, significant reasons, but that does not mean that given better world conditions it would still have failed. It will be noticed that in the covering letter to the leaflet, all of which appears in the correspondence columns to-day, the writer himself does not contemplate quite that degree of isolation which appears in paragraph (a) of the British Empire Referendum. He writes "Let the British Empire and the United States stand apart in fully armed neutrality, and what nation or combination of nations dare challenge that neutrality?" That presupposes that the two nations would combine for the protection their common neutrality, and what the writer apparently contemplates is not the total abolition of foreign entanglements but the throwing overboard of the old ones and the fashioning of a new. In the present temper the United States it is not likely that American opinion would accept stich a position as the organizer of the referendum. apparently has in mind. It is probable that the Government of the United States has gone as far as it dares when it announces the following of a common policy for the protection of their interests in the Far East, not} acting in union with Great Britain but along] parallel lines. To some people this may seem to indicate the existence of a close union, but. on reflection it should be apparent that in the maintenance of separate identities lies adference to the traditional American foreign policy. Mr. Engledower contemplates the common defence of their common neutrality by the two Powers he names, and in effect] Suggests that the United States might agree to take united action. Could such an arrange-_ ment be made, it is perfectly clear that it, would be a direct contradiction of the terms. of his memorandum, for it would constitute nothing less than a defensive alliance, repugnant to a large body of thought in the!
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.