21 DECEMBER 1934, Page 6

Mr. Baldwin, I see, is being attacked because he has

not refused to let British troops go into the Saar as Mr. Bonar Law refused to let them go into the Ruhr. It is more charitable to attribute the argument to ignor- ance than to dishonesty. British troops have gone to the Saar at the invitation of the League of Nations on a purely peaceful mission, with the complete goodwill of the two countries immediately concerned, France and Germany. They would have gone into the Ruhr as a measure of reprisal, and their despatch would, in the opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown, have been illegal. British forces were all the time- occupying part of the Rhineland. Did Mr. Bonar Law ever make objection to that ? *