The Struggle For Peace

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that any further encroachment should be made upon the terri-
tory of Czechoslovakia. Surely that is not a position that we
can take up. What we are doing now, as was pointed out by
my Noble Friend the Foreign Secretary, is witnessing the
readjustment of frontiers laid down in the Treaty of Versailles.
I do not know whether the people who were responsible
for those frontiers thought they would remain permanently
as they were laid down. I doubt very much whether they
did. They probably expected that from time to time the
frontiers would have to be adjusted. It is impossible to con-
ceive that those people would be such supermen as to be able
to see what would be the right frontiers for all time. The
question is not whether those frontiers should be readjusted
from time to time but whether they should be readjusted by
negotiation and discussion, or be readjusted by war. Readjust-
ment is going on and, in the case of the Hungarian frontier,
arbitration by Germany and Italy has been accepted by
Czechoslovakia and Hungary for the final determination of
the frontier between them. I think I have said enough about
Czechoslovakia.
" I do not propose to talk about Spain, following the ex-
ample of the right hon. Gentleman. As to China, I can only
say that there again the right hon. Gentleman appears to me
to be taking an unnecessarily gloomy view of the future.
He spoke of China as one of the largest potential markets in
the world. Potential—what does that mean ? China cannot
be developed into a real market without the influx of a great
deal of capital, and the fact that so much capital is being
destroyed during this war means that even more capital will
have to be put into China in the future, when the war is over.
Who is going to supply the capital ? It is quite certain that it
cannot be supplied by Japan. Therefore, when the right hon.
Gentleman appears to contemplate a future in which Japan will
have the monopoly of Chinese trade, and we shall be excluded
from it altogether, I say that that is flying in the face of the
facts. It is quite certain that, when the war is over and the
reconstruction of China begins, she cannot possibly be
reconstructed without some help from this country. (Inter-
ruption.) That is a matter for those who are asked to invest
their money to consider at the time.