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International Situation HOUSE OF COMMONS [Sir A. Sinclair.]
problem of colonies, because I do not sup- pose that the statesmen of all countries concerned meeting round a table would accept the solution which I should sug- gest, but I would ask the Government whether they agree that a solution of the colonial problem must be found on the basis of three principles. First, trustee- ship for the interests of the natives, with guarantees for their welfare and against the militarisation and conscription of the natives, and trusteeship in the interests of civilisation, that is to say, free access to the raw materials and food supplies to be found in these countries to the mer- chants and traders of the whole world. I know that there is a difference of opinion between hon. Members opposite and my- self about the proper interpretation of the principle of trusteeship, but I think we are united in saying that these twin principles should be the foundation of colonial policy and not the contrary principle of exploitation. I want to know whether the Government are holding firm to the principle of trusteeship.
Secondly, will the Government agree that all Powers with colonial interests must be consulted and that the smaller Powers must not only be told after con- sultations have taken place between the four big Powers what they have to con- tribute but that they must be in at the beginning of the conversations, and also that all Powers with colonial claims should be there too so that the whole question can be thrashed out. Then, whatever the solution is, it must not really
amount to the offer of a mandated terri- tory in order to buy a few months' peace from Germany. If there is to be any solution of this colonial problem it must be as part of a general settlement, and the acid test of that general settlement must be a measure of general disarma- ment.
That is the test of the sincerity of any peace settlement. Further, I would ask the Government whether they do not agree that the basis of general disarma- ment should be the remaining in force of the Anglo-German Treaty limiting the size of the German navy to one-third of ours, while on the other hand, I would agree that the size of the British army should not be more than one-third of the size of the German, and, in the third place, seeing that this country offers the most exposed and tempting target to air attack of any country in the world, I
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say that we must demand, as Lord Baldwin said that a national Government of all conceivable governments must de- mand most persistently and resolutely that in the air we must have air parity with any air force within striking distance of our shores. If the Prime Minister goes out for peace on these lines we are with him. It must not be a peace of com- pliance with the tyrant's will but a peace based on justice, on the principles of the League of Nations; a peace of the sincerity of which the acid test will be disarma- ment.
Mr. R. H. Morgan: The right hon. Gentleman has said Great Britain and France no longer count. Seeing that Great Britain and France are the main- stays of the League of Nations at the present time, are not all these things which the right hon. Gentleman deplores due to a breakdown of the League of Nations rather than to any default by this country?
Sir A. Sinclair: If I were to answer the hon. Member fully I think it would take up a good deal of time, but let me say that I did not say that Great Britain and France did not count. I said that they are not counting now East of the Rhine, and I think that is true.
6.24 p.m.
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Mr. Donner: Before I attempt to give an answer to some aspects of the speech of the right hon. Gentleman I should like to offer an apology to the House because a previous engagement this evening will prevent me from staying to the end of the Debate. I want to make the apology now lest any hon. Member should think I have no interest in listening to the rest of the Debate. The right hon. Member for Caithness and Sutherland (Sir A. Sinclair) has on many occasions given me the impression that he possession of a sense of international morality superior to that of any one else in the House. Again and again, as he has done this evening, he brings up the old question of Abyssinia, which I thought was dead and buried by now. When the present Home Secretary, then the Foreign Secretary, delivered his per- sonal explanation to this House on the occasion of his resignation on the question of Abyssinia, he showed in his speech that not a single Power save Australia and New Zealand took any precautionary military measures whatever.
These two
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Dominions sent cruisers across the Indian Ocean through the Red Sea into the waters of the Mediterranean. It was evident from this fact that the League of Nations from that moment failed to func- tion, and I held, and still hold, the view that there was a moral obligation upon the League and upon every hon. Member when that happened, to recognise the fact and to do something to compensate, if I might use the word, Haile Selassie, the Emperor of Abyssinia.
The only endeavour to save a part of Abyssinia for the Emperor was the Hoare- Laval pact which saved him something from the wreck, but the right hon. Gentleman was not one of those who sup- ported it. He denounced it and those of us who supported it, despite the fact that many of us regarded such an endeavour as a moral obligation which should be carried out. The right hon. Gentleman also spoke of 30 divisions which had now been released from the Czechoslovakian frontiers and which can now be turned upon France.
That is the spirit which cannot possibly lead to appeasement, and which will never bring peace in I have heard the right hon. Europe. Gentleman deliver many speeches in this House. I should like to say, not too offensively I hope, that that is a senti- ment which lies like a stone on the spirit. He says that we cannot trust the word of a dictator.
Sir A. Sinclair: The difference is between those who are loyal to the rule of law and those who regard the national will as the sole motive of their policy.
Mr. Donner: I do not want to misrepre- sent the right hon. Gentleman, but I understood from his speech that he made it perfectly plain that he does not trust Herr Hitler's word. I say that the best way in which to make a man keep his word is not to throw doubt upon it. When the Prime Minister came to this House in the recent special Session and delivered his speech, every hon. Member jumped to his feet and wished him Godspeed. do not remember the right hon. Gentle man saying that it was no use going to Munich, on the grounds that we could place no reliance on Herr Hitler's word. The right hon. Gentleman has spoken of the encirclement of Germany, although he did not use that word. I believe that the day of the encirclement of Germany is past and over. We must approach this
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International Situation subject in a new spirit, with a new mental orientation. The right hon. Gentleman's whole speech from the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia to the point when he thought that 30 divisions would be moved to the Western front revealed that he dis- trusts Germany and believes that Ger- many desires war and that the best way to deal with Germany is to encircle her. The question whether you can perman- ently keep in subjection a great nation of 80,000,000 people is practical politics or not is over. That belongs to the past. The right hon. Gentleman thinks in terms of a war of prevention. Those days are over long ago. It might have been the right policy in 1925 as some people in France believed, but it cannot be wise to wait until Germany is fully armed and then adopt a policy of encirclement.
The right hon. Gentleman proceeded and spoke of the Polish irruption into Teschen. I do not desire to make any excuses at all for what has happened, but I would remind him of the history of that incident. In the year 1920 Poland was fighting Soviet Russia and the Bolshevists were at the gates of Warsaw. The Czechoslovakian Government taking advantage of Poland's hour of danger and difficulty, seized Teschen and even pre- vented equipment and supplies reaching Poland from Hungary. I do not say that I agree with either action, nor do I justify either, but I say it reveals and represents the kind of spirit which I be- lieve still lives in the right hon. Gentle- man, a spirit which cannot lead to peace and can end only in war.
Reference was made earlier in the De- bate to the economic results of the Munich Agreement. I suggest to the House that if it is possible for Germany to expand economically in South Eastern Europe, that is a matter which should not cause us anxiety, but is rather a development which we should welcome. I believe that German economic expansion in South Eastern Europe is natural, just as our economic expansion in the Dominions and Colonies overseas is natural. If we can help Germany to increase her trade in South Eastern Europe, we shall be assist- ing her to raise the standard of living there as well as her own, and I believe that if there is a contented Germany, which does not merely exist, but in which there is a decent standard of living main- tained and made possible, then there will be a greater chance of living in Europe
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