A POSITIVE FOREIGN POLICY
THERE was nothing spectacular about Mr. Eden's first important speech as Foreign Secretary, delivered in the House of Commons on Monday. Nor could there be. What the House wanted to know was what line the Government had decided to take on oil sanctions.. Actually the Government had by Monday reached no decision, and even if it had, respect for other members of the League's Committee of Eighteen required that it should not be announced in set terms—though it could well have been broadly hinted at—till the meeting of that body at Geneva next week. On the actual oil question neither the Foreign Secretary nor his critics said anything new, for the good reason that everything it is possible to say on both sides has been said repeatedly already. Mr. Eden mentioned that in the last three months Anglo-Persian oil exports to Italy had fallen sub- stantially (in terms of percentages of Italy's total imports) and American exports risen substantially: Thaf is America's affair, and it lies with no one on this side of the Atlantic to read her homilies. As for 'ourselves, the general case for imposing oil sanctions is what it always was. It is desirable to impede an aggressor connfry's proseeution of an Unlawful war by every means posSible. It is desirable to show the world, particularly the non-. Member States, that League States are not bent on evading the execution of all but the irreducible Mininium• of their obligations under the Covenant.. And it is desirable not to give Senator Borah and his friends the opportunity of protesting that it would be quixotic for America to do anything about oil, since League States were doing nothing about oil theniselves: Ent it would be a great injustice to the Foreign Secretary to judge his speech simply by its references to the oil question. His broad statement of the ai'm's and bases of British foreign policy was coin- prehensive and constructive, and deserving of much more 'generous appreciation than most Opposition speakerS were willing to accord it. What Mr. Eden* said in effect was that in regard to the Italo-Abyssinian war efforts . at conciliation must go. hand in hand with sanctions, and that the proper plaec for any peace discussion was GeneVa and . the proper basis the proposals of the League's Committee of Five ; that the Government was still prepared for a con-. ference on access to colonial raw materials ; that the only hope of averting a far more terrible catastrophe than the war of 1914 was the strengthen- ing of the collective systeni through the League of 'Nations, and that for that purpose Great Britain, as a pillar of the system, must herself be strong ; and that this country must make it plain • beyond possibility of doubt that` by the collective system it does not mean either sectional alliances or the encirclement of any country whatever, and will have no part nor lot in any such disastrous project.
From those contentions a clear and rconstructive_ policy emerges, and it is a grave injustice to the Fezeign Secretary to charge him with confining him- self to vague generalities. Everything no doubt de-' pends on how policy is worked out in particular circum- stances, and on that the principles laid down by
Mr. Eden invite certain comments. One plain AA is better recognised than ignored. The–danger to European .peace comes not from Italy–Ahat is relatively negligible—but from Germany. Germany may be misunderstood ; her intentions may be less disturbing. than they seem ; but-that they givr ground for anxiety is undeniable. Some part of the tension in -Anglo-German and Franco-Gerinan,and:;.:Russo-; German - relations- is due to 'hostility to the form and still more to. the methods of the existing regime, in Germany. Such emotions must be suppressed. 'Any suspicion that British policy was influenced in the smallest degree by a desire to undermine; It position of Herr Hitler in Germany or SignonMussolini in Italy would banish all hope of an ,upcler440ing finally. Our business. is with -Germany and Italy in their relations with other States, and,,ouF.Jask in the case of Germany in particular is to.„ make both Herr Hitler, and his cOuntrynien understand on the one hand that we are ready, fo_discus..any reasonable demands she has to make, that we, , are resolutely opposed to any encirclement of her, :to
. .
her disadvantage,, that we approve no Central European, pact that would prejudice Germany in Central European markets ; and on the other, that we are determined to make the collective system so strong that no single State,. or any ,probable.com- bination of States, will venture to challenge. it, but that we would welcome the discussion of a, Western Air Pact or any other agreement for the limitation of armaments on an equitable basis.
Is that a practical programme ? No ;certain answer can be given to . the question.. . Whether the powers that control Germany are seriously .enter- taining the idea of an aggressive . war in any circum- stances, and if so in what circumstances; . neither Mr. Eden nor any other British Minister. knows. But the more we lose contact with Germany the less we are likely to know. It may or .may,r.A. suit Germany to meet this and other countrjeg,in frank discussion, but at. least the opportunity..iought to. be given—or the challenge. presented. „Germany at the Moment, is entitled to say that$ritain,Francei the Little Entente States and Austria. are all talking to each other and no one talking to her, .except an increasingly desperate Italy. and a _ studiously :now. committal Poland. She may prefer not to lalk„ to withdraw into self: hosen isolationand then complain of encirclement. But we are not entitled., yet . to assume that. There are indeed some indications. to the contrary. Dr. Rudolf ,Kircher,. the: P.;ditor of the Frankfurter Zeitung, who , does, not. .usually treat of such matters irresponsibly,. asked. aJew.,days ago what European States :wanted of Germany, and reproached them with failing-to examine svripu.sly. the proposals made by Herr. Hitler in , his . speech on: foreign affairs- last May. If that ,suggegtion lass . ally official support behind it, . a definite ..,talkingiviut is prOvided, for though Herr Hitler's Thirteen Points could certainly not, be giceepv.4,.:* they stand. they are all of them suseeptible.of reasonable discussion.
In any case there, is the, whole colonial, acct. raw. material question', .What Eden. said . a4coutliittt
on Monday was good as Carp it went, but it actually went no further than Sit Siuniiel- Hoare's speech which aroused such high hopes at Geneva last Setitertiber.. din -.perfectly willing at any time tip enter into an: examination' of this subject "- the lob obviOus implication being that if someone else caies to lead 'we shall be ready' to follow. Is that an impressive part for this country to play ? It was a British Foreign Minister 'who- put forward more than five months ago what, -despite its guarded language, was regarded by the world as a definite proposal for an international enquiry into the raw material problem, and he had no reason to complain of the reception accorded to his speech. Since then a hopeful and constructive idea has stagnated, and -Mr. Eden does little more than leave it to stag- nation. still. More than that is expected of him. It is only by grappling with potential causes of war that statesmen can hope to avert war itself. They may not succeed. Censure will not necessarily fall on them for that. But. if they fail even to make the attempt, they stand self-condemned.
Previous page
