Mr. MacDonald laid it down that Great Britain had no
intention of making alliances, but wished to live in friendship with all nations. So far as this can be taken to refer to the present situation it was a condemnation of what is called the new Entente with France. We do not believe, of course, that our Government have any such policy in mind, because it would necessarily be an anti-Locarno, anti-German, anti-American and anti-a- great-many-other-things policy. Mr. MacDonald went on to say that nobody could lay the whole blame for the War on a single nation. A war was like a fact which Anatole France said was a thing of infinite complexity. " We cannot contemplate on that com- plexity. Let us leave it to the historians." That was an admirable comment on the Nationalist demand to secure a revision of the War-guilt clause. No conceivable committee which might inquire into the subject could be free of partisanship. It was a blunder, we admit, to compel Germany to sign the War-guilt clause, but nothing could be more futile than to reopen the question. History will decide. No other verdict is worth having. Englishmen at least can await it with complete confidence.
Previous page
