BRITAIN'S LEAD TO THE WORLD
NOT for generations has a British Foreign Secretary been confronted on his entry into office with graver, more delicate or more perplexing problems than faced Sir Samuel Hoare when he received his seals from the King. This is no moment to dwell on personal factors, but the least that is due to the Foreign Minister is an unstinted tribute to the con- spicuous wisdom and ability he has shown since his transference from a post in which he had already rendered distinguished and fruitful service. His speech on foreign affairs in the House of Commons in July laid the foundations of his reputation as Foreign Secretary. The far more important speech in the League of Nations Assembly on Wednesday has lifted him to a high place among the more notable occupants of his office.
It is a speech in which even those of Sir Samuel's countrymen still hesitant about the policy enshrined in it must take profound satisfaction. For beyond any utterance by a British statesman at an inter- national gathering since the War it has put this country in its rightful place in the councils of the world. It established British leadership at Geneva. It recalled the League to faith in its own ideals. It supplemented the negative policy of the prevention of war with a positive policy for removing the causes of war. It revealed this country as prepared, in full knowledge of the possible consequences, to take its full share in collective action in resistance to aggression. It addressed to Italy a warning studiously free from rebuke or provocation. It addressed to France an assurance the full import of which her swift intelligence • will not mistake. And in a guarded but significant sentence it drew necessary attention to the possibility of disaster to the League involving the collapse of the main bridge between Great Britain and the Continent.
What, finally, gives the speech its enduring value is that it not merely outlines British policy—as British Foreign Minister Sir Samuel Hoare had necessarily to do that—but at the same time lays down a practical and constructive League of Nations policy; as a leading member of the League Assembly Sir Samuel had both the right and the duty to do . that too. It is a policy which falls under three heads—the renunciation of war ; provision for peaceful change ; and equality of economic oppor- tunity for all nations. About the two latter little need be said now, for much will have to be said in the near future. If war is averted the League can and must apply itself to the solution of those problems without delay, for if they are not solved they will mean war—either this war now threatening or some other • somewhere else. Their discussion will involve full realisation by the Colonial PoWers of the needs and aspirations of other Powers with few colonies or none (though the grievances about lack of access to raw materials are as much imaginary- as real), and one great merit of Sir Samuel Hoare's speech was the assurance it gave of Great Britain's readiness to meet such aspirations and claims with an open mind. An open mind' does not necessarily imply belief in an open door, but in this case the
principle of the open door in colonial possessions and protectorates, as in mandate areas, was clearly indicated as the policy Great Britain would advocate. Its discussion in a world conference may lead dangerously far, but to face the risks is the beSt way to minimise them.
But even this, it must be recognised, at the moment is an irrelevance. The immediate problem is peace. On that the attitude of this country has been defined publicly for Italy and the world to hear in language which errs by not a hair's breadth in the direction of deficiency or excess. France's attitude has not yet been thus publicly announced (inexorable exigencies require thiS article to be written before the delivery of M. Laval's speech) but it is not to be conceived that Sir Samuel Hoare, who spent most of Tuesday in consultation with the French Prime Minister, would deliver on WedneSday a speech calculated to reveal a rift between the two countries. Other national declarations will be heard at Geneva before the week ends, bid it is a reasonable assumption that the British Foreign Minister has voiced in advance the sentiments of every 'delegate in the Assembly. Welcome as that unity is it' creates a situation of undisguised gravity. how grave depends on one completely unknown fAetor—the ultimate intentions of Signor Mussolini. If he is resolved on war at any cost, even against the'Etiropean Powers which have declared their policy at Geneva, then the world is faced with the choice betWeen war, with all its unimaginable Consequences, and the abandonment of the collective system, whOk Vindica- tion even by the ordeal 'of war would substitute' the rule of law for the rule of force in the world. ,Great Britain has announced through her Foreign'Sccretarv, speaking with the full weight of Cabinet decisions behind him, which way her vote is cast.
What is in store now ? Signor Mussolini, by hiS recent warning and a call to arms to Fascists through- out the world, has revealed himself as a man infatuated beyond all bounds of normality with the idea of force. Treaties are to be broken that 'force May prevail. An unarmed neighbour is to be attacked that force may triumph. Half the world is to be challenged by a man to whom the 'spectacle of force is an intoxication. Every objective that recourse to force could achieve, except the illegitithate one of conquest and annexation, has been brought within the range of peaceful attainment. But every proposal based on reason and justice has been rejected, that force may do its ruthless work. It was under provocation far less aggravated that President Wilson, the most peaceful man 'alive as long as peace was possible for his country, but when the sword was forced into his hands the most warlike, declared that against a foe determined to enthrone force there was only one response possible,"fiirce, force to the utmost, force Without' stint or limit, :righteous and triumphant force, which shall make Right the law of the world' and cast every selfish &minion down in the dust.." If that becomes the issue today. Signor Mussolini and lie alone will be responsible;and the consequences to Italy will be of his shaping.
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