WAR AS AN INSTRUMENT OF POLICY
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR, I have never joined in the attacks on Sir John Simon, but now at last, when all the House of Commons is applauding him, I confess he has shocked me. He said on February 27th " However we handle this matter, I do not intend my own country to get into trouble."
Is that quite the language for a member of the chief tribunal of the civilized world ? Are we to understand that, when a case comes to the Council of the League for arbitration, the British representative in giving judgement will be thinking only how to keep his own country out of trouble—however he may have to " handle the matter " in order to do so ? The other nations, meantime, will, we hope, pronounce judgement according to the facts and the law ! Or again, if France is some day invaded and appeals to the Locarno Treaties, are the French to understand that we shall so " handle the matter " as to see that Great Britain does not " get into trouble " ? Or is this anarchic principle reserved for use in the Far East ?
Of course I do not think Sir John quite meant what he said. He only meant that he was, quite rightly, determined not to get involved in war with Japan ; but I fear that he did, for the moment, allow his impulsive temperament to run away with him. What would become of the League, or how could any nation ever trust any other, if, when the. moment of decision came, each government was determined, " however it handled the matter," somehow, by hook or by crook, to keep its own country out of trouble ?—I am, Sir, &c., Yatscombe, Boar's Hill, Oxford.
GILBERT MURRAY.
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