3 DECEMBER 1927, Page 2

In that regret we cannot join, though we heartily agree

with him that the Government would do well to sign the optional clause. Those nations which have signed it cannot understand our refusal. We Englishmen under- . stand well enough, and without any stretching of indul- gence can credit the Government with perfectly sincere objections. But as the situation which would be created by British signature of the clause would be reached more circuitously, but none the less surely, as a result_ of our present obligations, we cannot see that anything whatever is gained by the Government's hesitation. What ought to be a decisive consideration, as we think, is the fact that our refusal is taken by many other countries as a proof of our half-heartedness in the . cause of peace.