Government speakers urged with some force that there is not
much difference between the declared policies of the various parties. It is true that neither Liberals nor Socialists can find much to cavil at in the recent pronouncements of the Foreign Secretary, so far as they go. The most effective answer came from Mr. Noel Baker, who argued that it was not sufficient to guarantee the frontiers of France and Belgium. If France fought for Czechoslovakia, what would we do ? The danger in 1914 did not come from Belgium but from Serbia. For the most part, however, the case for the Opposition was based upon the apparent conflict between the utterances of different members of the Government. It is certainly difficult to reconcile Mr. Eden's belief in collective security with Sir John Simon's maladroit declaration last year that he was not prepared to lose a single ship in the cause of Abyssinian independence. Sir Austen Chamberlain made the now familiar point that it is no use putting on economic sanctions unless you are prepared to go to war. He was less fortunate in his assertion that British public opinion during the Abyssinian crisis was never unanimous or nearly so.
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