The Week in Parliament Our Parliamentary Correspondent writes : Tuesday's
debate on the foreign situation was an unsatisfactory affair. There was no special occasion for it, and the participants roamed over the whole face of the earth. As so often happens when general principles of policy are under review, neither side did itself justice. Opposition spokesmen put the case for collective security much too high and Government sup- porters much too low. No doubt it is true that Mr. Alexander and some of his colleagues are unduly, and indeed absurdly, optimistic about the possibilities of sanctions against Japan. They can scarcely suppose that measures of economic coercion would be successful without the co-operation of the United States and, since the Brussels Conference, there seems to be little reason for believing that such co-operation would be forthcoming. On the other hand, it is a gross blunder for Conservatives to talk as if collective action could never in any circumstances be successful. As Sir Arthur Salter pointed out, discussions along these lines give an entirely misleading impression. The Government always appears to be taking a weaker attitude than is in fact the case, while the gap between the two front benches is in reality not nearly so wide as the casual onlooker would imagine.
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