BUTTER OR GUNS ?
THE Foreign Secretary on Tuesday delivered before the Foreign Press Association in London —most appropriate of audiences—a speech charged with an admirable clarity of purpose which, neces- sary as it is, has by no means always marked expositions of British foreign policy in the recent past. As in the House of Commons early in November, as at Leamington a fortnight later, as at Bradford in the middle of December, Mr. Eden proclaimed unequivocally the faith of himself and his country in Parliamentary democracy, riot- as a compromise creed forming a half-way house of refuge between Fascism and Communism, but as a way of life abundantly tested by this country through. the centuries, and approved by nine-tenths of its people as against any other to which the world gives allegiance. We are not given to acclaiming our own virtues—and indeed the maintenance of a democratic regime is less a virtue than a proof of sanity—but the last thing we are called to do is to stand on the defensive in regard to democracy, and it is very much to the good that the Foreign Secretary should make it clear that we hold to democracy, less defiantly but not less tenaciously than any Communist holds to Communism or any Fascist to Fascism.
Where democracy differs from the creeds of left and right is that it is wedded to tolerance and they are not. The rule of the 'people means ipso facto that the people—any people—must decide how it shall be ruled. Mr. Eden very rightly applied that doctrine to the situation in Spain. It is for the Spanish people to decide for themselves how they will be governed, and if they decided voluntarily, and by a genuinely free vote, for a Fascist regime, that would be their business and not ours. Un- fortunately, of course, no such simple situation presents itself. The Spanish people arc not being left to work out their own salvation, or even their own perdition. The British Government has assum- ed, and imposed on its own subjects, a genuine neutrality. Other Great Powers, France not excepted, —though France's responsibility is far other than that of the totalitarian States, no one of whose citizens is a free agent—have followed a very different course, with the result that Spain has been for weeks the scene of a war of ideologies carried on not as a clash of ideas but as a clash of aeroplanes and artillery and machine-guns. The demand of Great Britain for a fair field for the opposing Spanish armies has been rejected, and the conflict between French and Russians on one side and Germans and Italians on the other has almost overshadowed the struggle be- tween the followers of Caballero and Franco.
Has the time come then to admit that the fight for non-intervention has been lost and to open the gates to an influx of support official or non-official for one or other of the two sides in Spain from every country in the world ? A week ago it almost seemed so. Britain and France have rigidly abjured all thought of fastening democracy on Spain by external intervention ; but it is a very different matter to stand by and see the defenders of democracy in Spain ruthlessly crushed by external intervention. If the landing of German and Italian fighting-inen-7 call them troops or -volunteers or what you will— were to continue, and the military penetration of Morocco by either country were to be established on reliable evidence, then Britain and _France, and it may be hoped other democracies, could not hesitate to issue serious warnings, and if need be to act. It is worth remembering that between them they hold command of the sea. But since Sunday the tension has. perceptibly relaxed. German activities in Spanish Morocco are shown to have been exagger; ated by rumour—though by no means non-existent-t- and the mutual assurances given by Germany and France to each other that neither country has designs on Spanish Morocco have cleared the air in both Paris and Berlin. The question of volunteers remains. To the British proposal that rigorous measures shall be, adopted by all countries to prevent the entry of any further foreign volunteers into Spain qualified acceptances have been received from the countries primarily concerned, Germany, Italy and Russia. If the British scheme is in fact put into operation, we shall be entitled to believe that the international situation has passed its crisis.
But we have not achieved that yet. With every disposition to put the best construction' on the pacific words addressed by Herr Hitler to the dip- lomatic corps in Berlin on Monday, we have no means " of ' determining which school -in Germany will finally decide policy. The General Staff is known to be opposed to further implication in the Spanish imbroglio ; so, of course, is Baron von Neurath and the sober elements in the Foreign Office ; so, unquestionably, is that influential realist Dr. Schacht. But the party hot-heads appear to be getting hotter- headed daily, and it must never be forgotten that the German people are fed on selected. facts: They know that French and Russians are. fighting on the side of the Spanish Government ; - they have no idea—except the relatives of men " accidentally killed abroad "—that thousands of GerMans are fighting with Franco. Germany's hostile gestures, moreover, are not directed towards the Spanish Government alone. Her fevered rearmament pro; gramme, which has long passed the level necessary for equality, her insistence on " guns before butter," the chauvinistic character of the teaching in her schools and universities, the deliberately belligerent attitude adopted and fostered towarda Czecho- slovakia, all provide a sinister comment on Herr Hitler's aspiration for " a real understanding and reconciliation among the nations, which will make possible for all a continuance of their economic existence, guaranteeing the prosperity and progress of humanity as a whole." • But Herr Hitler has a right to complain that, his overtures have been turned down in_ the past when they ought to, have been taken up. _That mistake Must not' be made again, and .347. Edenolas not made it. He has specifically welcomed the Fiihrer's words, and repeated; what is the obVious .essence of the whole matter, that political amelioration, which means disarmament, must go lurid in hand with economic amelioration. Great Britain is ready fOr both: Is Germany ? Spain need be no obstacle. To repatriate the Foreign troops fighting on both sides would be impracticable—certainly no powers exist here to recall British subjects—but though estimates are vague it is probable that the foreigners on either side 'are roughly of equal strength and if the inflow is stopped the balance will be kept reason- ably even. More than that may be said. If Herr Hitler means peace coupled with that economic amelioration which Germany so urgently needs, this country should and would go to great lengths to meet him. To quote Mr. Eden again : " we definitely prefer butter to guns," for ourselves and for all nations. We will co-operate to our utmost with Germany in securing more butter for her—if she will join us in a. policy of fewer guns for everyone. If her choice is for more guns she will not have the most.
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