A Notable Precedent A passage in the Chancellor of the
Exchequer's speech at Belfast last week deserves more attention than it has so far received. Referring to the part played by the international force, and the British contingent in parti- cular, in the Saar, Mr. Chamberlain added pertinently.: " What has happened in the Saar is a precedent that points clearly the direction in which we have to go in order some day to establish firmly and permanently the maintenance of international peace." It is well that that moral should be drawn, and Mr. Chamberlain is perfectly right in regarding the Saar experiment as a precedent. The Government cannot be blamed for moving with reasonable caution, , and insisting on satisfying itself regarding the attitude of other Great Powers, particularly the United States of, America ; but if peace and inter- national order are to be set on a firm foundation, the ultimate method must be the internationalization, as opposed to the nationalization, of force. Internationali-_ zation, it is necessary to add, can quite well be achieved, as it has in the Saar, through the co-operation of national contingents.
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