Lord Robert Cecil in the course of the debate urged
that the League of Nations should have intervened to prevent the Polish counter-offensive. The League, he thought, might have checked the -aggressive designs of the Bolsheviks by declining to open commercial relations with them until they showed a genuine desire for -peace. He questioned the sincerity of Ministers belief in -the League. " A very unkind critic of the Prime Minister said the other day that the League of Nations had taken the place of the Welsh mountains in his perorations." Mr. Boner Law in his reply assured the House again that the Government had not advised Poland to attack the -Bolsheviks. Munitions were given to Poland last autumn to enable her to resist the Bolshevik offensive, which was then impending -and which has since been delivered without success. The Poles alone could -judge whether their counter-offensive was necessary to ward off another Bolshevik attack. The Government did not think that the League of Nations could intervene profitably in this quarrel. The League had no influence over the Bolsheviks, who declined even to receive a League mission of inquiry. If any attempt were made to use the League for making a final settlement of the war, the neutrals would object and the League would be discredited.
Previous page
