"Reform the League"

The First Lord of the British Admiralty is always a potent personage, but last week Sir Samuel Hoare made a public speech in which he seemed to become the spokesman of the British Cabinet's foreign policy. It was proper for him to do so, since British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden's prestige had last week reached lowest ebb. Sir Samuel was called back into the Cabinet fortnight ago as "The Man Who Was Right'' about Ethiopia (TIME, June 15). By implication Mr. Eden must have been, if not wrong, at least somewhat dim. Last week First Lord Hoare spoke at Cambridge in these vigorous terms:

"Pax Romana rested on the Roman Legions. Pax Britannica rests on the Empire defense forces--particularly the Navy--and they ought to be much stronger than they are! . . . I hope one of the results--perhaps a good result--that will emerge from the difficulties and disappointments we have suffered in recent months will be that we will take note of the weaknesses that have appeared in the League of Nations and shall do our best to remedy them."

This Sir Samuel proposed to do not by equipping the League of Nations to enforce its judgments everywhere but by setting up under Geneva auspices brand new groupings of the powers with specific local machinery to enforce peace. "Suppose, for instance," declared the First Lord, "that the continental nations of Europe could form a United States of Europe, such as that conceived by the late Aristide Briand of France a decade ago, our troubles would be mitigated! Russia would be a unit. Similarly, the United States and its American friends would be a third unit.

"Let the world at large take these lessons to heart when it comes to discuss the future of the League.

"The success of the British Empire is due to the fact that each member has two loyalties, one to itself, the other to the empire. But the weakness of Geneva has been the absence of a second loyalty of members to Geneva. The world sense is not yet sufficiently developed to make it possible for member States to go to Geneva with united principles and common loyalties. It may come in time but it is a mistake to make theoretical policy on the assumption that it already exists."

In the chancelleries of Europe this was assumed to be the nearest approach to a public statement last week of what His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom have in mind by their current but undefined proposal to "reform the League".

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