MR. LLOYD GEORGE ON A PEACE LEAD BY BRITAIN
, In a recent issue of THE SPECTATOR attention was drawn (in "A Spectator's Notebook ") to a speech by Mr. Lloyd George, in which the former Prime Minister declared that only the British Empire could save civilization from a worse disaster than 1914, and that the Empire had the influence and the power to enable Britain to go to Geneva and insist on peace. In reply to a request to develop this thesis a little further Mr. Lloyd George has been good enough to send TIM SPECTATOR the following statement of his views regarding the necessity for a British lead : "BRITAIN must take a definite and a daring lead if the world is to be saved from another war. America is too entangled in its own domestic worries to concern itself about external problems. Britain is the country which above all others is international in outlook and interest. It is, and always has been, strictly impartial in its judgements on European questions. The French never realize this. Our strict impartiality is to them an offence, and almost a betrayal. We fought Germany, not because we were pro-French or anti-German, but because Germany threatened international right in Europe in 1914, as France did in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. We must resume our great traditional r6le with the courage which has repeatedly saved the liberties of Europe. But we must include Asia in the sphere of our beneficent influence. Isolation is treason to all that is noblest in our history. It is a repudiation of our divine mission.
" The two fundamental mistakes committed by this Government in their foreign policy are : 1. They did not insist steadily on all the signatories of the Treaty of Versailles honouring their under- taking as to disarmament—France as well as Germany—Germany as well as France. Their concession as to equality of status came after they had repudiated it in 1932 and thus driven Germany into the arms of the Nazis.
2. Their deplorable feebleness over Japan. This has completely discredited the League. We picked up a silly quarrel with Russia whilst Japan was tearing whole provinces from the side of a friendly Power which it was our special concern to protect—a Power which, moreover, is a Member of the League and had actually submitted its case to the adjudica- tion of the League Council.
" Now and again the Government seems to be taking the right view of its obligations. If you box the compass you are bound at some stage to point in the right direction, and if you box it repeatedly then you must often take the right view. But this shifting about is not helpful to the navigation of the ship. The Govern- ment must take a clear definite course, and steer firmly but skilfully—taking note of shoals and currents—but never forgetting the goal. The British Empire is in such a strong position, and other nations in so com- paratively precarious a situation, that no country can afford to defy us if we pursue a steadfastly unselfish policy. In any quarrel in which other nations might be involved the intervention of Britain on one side or the other would decide the issue. France, Germany and Japan all know that, and this knowledge is a governing diplomatic factor.
" There is no doubt that we have failed, and failed badly, to take advantage of our opportunities. For the moment we are almost ruled out. Litvinoff (one of the ablest of all the world's diplomatists), Mussolini, Hitler and even Barthou count infinitely more than our great guides on foreign policy, and yet not one of them has as good cards in his hands as we have. We are leaning not so much on a lath as on a withy. The result is that our policy is never straight, but we never know at any given time or emergency in which direction it will curve."
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