17 OCTOBER 1925, Page 1

The anti-Baldwin newspapers, on the look-out morning and evening for

a new stick with 'which to beat the Government, arc now complaiping thdt under the Pact Great Britain will sign away her right to decide for herself questions of peace and war. She will consent, in fact, to being involved in war on the mere fiat of' the League of Nations. This particular stick is capable, we admit, of delivering blows that hurt, and it is essential, therefore, that we should be clear in our minds about the precise sense in which we should lose freedom of choice. Naturally we should all like to maintain unimpaired the principle that the British Parliament alone must decide whether Great Britain shall go to war. Mr. Austen Chamberlain is credited with the intention of contriving a formula by which the British Parliament will actually decide though in form its action may be dictated by the League.