The Struggle For Peace

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MR. ATTLEE : " It was precisely the object of the establish-
ment of the League that the preservation of peace was a
common interest of the world, and my point is that the right
hon. Gentleman's Government has departed from that because
it has always considered only the narrow Imperialist interest
and not the world interest. He would be in a far better
position to-day if it had realised that long ago."
THE PRIME MINISTER : ** That seems to me to be only
a repetition of the view that it is the duty of this country to
protect interests all over the world, quite apart------"
AN HON. MEMBER : " What about others ? "
THE PRIME MINISTER : " Yes, in company with others.
[HON. MEMBERS : c Hear, hear !'] Will the hon. Members
who say * Hear, hear/ tell us how we are to get others along-
side us ? Are they completely blind and deaf to what has
taken place ? Have they forgotten the efforts we have made
to get other countries alongside us ? This seems to me to
show once again that the Opposition are living in an unreal
world. They are trying to put upon a mutilated League duties
which it is not able to perform as it is constituted at present,
and they are trying to throw upon this Government the onus
of what is not the fault of this Government, but is the inevitable
accompaniment of the present constitution of the League.
We are not unmindful—we never have been in this country—
of the abstract principles of justice, liberty and freedom,
for which we stand in this country and the British Empire.
But, although hon. Gentlemen opposite talk about our acting
in concert with others, it takes two, at least, to bring about a
concert, and we cannot act alone and stand up for these
principles in all parts of the world. The right hon. Gentleman
does, in fact, ask us to do that, because if the League fails
hon. and right hon. Gentlemen opposite always say, * It is
entirely the fault of His Majesty's Government/ I should
give the House no hope if I thought that that was all we had
to depend on. When the right hon. Gentleman wants to
know whether we are drifting or steering towards a port, I
say, c We are not drifting; we have a definite objective in
front of us/ That objective is a general settlement of the
grievances of the world without war. We believe that the
right way to go about that is not to issue threats, but to try to