Evening star., 1935-09-29
BRITISH PACIFISM HELD
PARADOX AND SHAM
Regards Italy in Ethiopia as Threat to
Colonial Empire and See Possible
Inspiration to Germany.

seventy millions OF whites dominate
the fortunes of more than four hun
dred millions of various colored races.
They acquired all this estate by con-
quest and this business Of annexation
has been going on uninterruptedly for
more than three centuries. AS late
as the World War they took advan-
tage Of their victory to take all the
best Of the German colonies. When
the japanese seized Manchuria they
were not concerned with the moral
aspects of the case, plain as these
were, because Manchuria was a field
without interest for them and with
out threat to their Asiatic posses
sions.
Pushing Into British Domain.
But Ethiopia was horse of another
color. 1t was another enterprise as
unwelcome as San Stefano or Fashoda.
Italy was not merely breaking the
law and transgressing the moral code.
she was also arrogantly pushing her
self into a region which the British
regarded as peculiarly their own. And
that. in the British idiom, was bit
thick. But Americans ought to see
where all this sort of thing leads.
1t amounts to the assertion by the
British that no country shall under
take to expand in any region where
such expansion might even remotely
injure British interests.
Exactly the same attitude marks
British policy in Europe. If Germany
should choose to take the Polish
Corridor, there would be no English
objection. In fact, London has again
and again urged Polish submission to
German desires. If Germany took
Austria there would be no effective
protest across the Channel. II Ger
many sought to disturb the status
quo In the Rhineland, however, that
would mean war, because, as Baldwin
has said, the Rhine had become the
British frontier now that aircraft
have become q dominant detail of
war. But it must be plain that ag-
gression is aggression, whether it hap
pens on the Vistula, the Danube or
the Rhine, and If the British are not
prepared to oppose it everywhere the
have no right to pose as the cham
pions of law and order and justice
when, in fact, they are only lookin'
out for their own interests, quit
properly but by no means disinter
estedly.
Doesn't Want Italy in Ethiopia.
Great Britain doesn't want Ital,'
in Ethiopia-that is the long ant
short of it. And she does not wan
Italy there because she sees that Mus
solini might be an uncomfortable
neighbor and the Ethiopian precedent
might return to plague her when
Germany presses for the return Of her
colonies. But If through the League
the British can get all the member
nations to join in coercing the Italians
she will run few risks and incur
only slight costs. When Austria
dispatched her ultimatum to Serbia
in 1914 and followed it by declara-
ton Of war and invasion, dis
tinguished British journalist voiced the
sentiment of the bulk Of his fellow
countrymen in the phrase-"To hell
with Serbia"
When, by contrast, the Germans
did the same thing in the case of
Belgium, Britain went to war on be-
half of the rights of small countries
and appealed to the conscience of
mankind for aid and approval. But
Serbia and Belgium were both small
countries, equally prospective victims
of aggression, and the only difference
was that one was near and one far.
In a word, it was an earlier version of
the Manchurian and Ethiopian epi-
sodes. Now, I confess to prfound
admiration for the fashion in which
the British can persuade themselves
and a great part of the public in many
| other countries that they are acting
only for unselflsh reasons when they
undertake to safeguard their own
material interests and that when they
60 to war to assure national security
they are actually drawing their sword
for international justice.
It's a great gift and 1t IS q real
gift. Any one who believes the British
are deliberate and conscious hypocrites
is too stupid to deserve a hearing.
But the fact Is that British policy is
always dictated by lively concern
for British interests and when the
idealists take the lead the imperialists.
in the American phrase, invariably
score an assist on the putout. If the
British went to war with Italy over
the Ethiopian affair the British them
selves would believe and call upon
every one else to believe that they
were drawing their swords to uphold
the League, to defend the cause of
world peace and to vindicate the
principle of democracy challenged by
the Fascist heresy.
(Copyright. 1850