TOPICS OF THE DAY-THE OTHER SIDE CONTINUITY IN FOREIGN POLICY
BY J. RAMSAY MACDONALD
[Copyright in all Countries.]
and that could only fit into a system of government which chaos, and- suspicion to help him out of his was personal and despotic throughout and made reVolution difficulties. Rather, he must impose upon himself the TT would be interesting to study the metal that- goes inevitable. We need not dream of such madness here. into the coinage of phrases that have become popular Another set of facts must also be taken into account. currency and are passed round as accepted wisdom. This country is governed by representative public A certain proportion of truth there must always be in opinion, and that necessitates the existence of party. it, but a vitiating amount of error is generally found in In every democratic State there must be groups of men the alloy. This is the case with the subject upon which —in normal times, not more than two—who, holding I have been asked to write. different conceptions on some great body of political The nature of the work of the Foreign Office is special. or social opinion, regard national well-being from different The nation in its world relations is weak or strong, angles. This difference must have some effect on foreign be immune from the partisan conflicts in which they v- This means that whatever wisdom is in the doctrine of are apparently willing that the work of other departments continuity, it must not run counter to the essential con- should be mauled. And so, when someone gave expres- ditions of public opinion ruling through representative sion to the doctrine. of continuity of foreign policy the government, and to that extent the country must take phrase became enshrined amongst the commonplaces the risk of an occasional break in continuity, because of political wisdom. that is the alternative to the much graver risk of pursuing The truth in it was both obvious and salutary. A fatuously a policy which it condemns.
country that changes its foreign policy with the winds In spite of these limitations, however, the general of popular feeling must be a weak country, and will policy of continuity has a broad scope of usefulness. The soon have no friends and no allies. A country whose vast bulk of Foreign Office work involves no question of foreign policy depends upon the turns in party fortunes principle. Here continuity ought to rule, the touch will be just as trusted as a person of whimsical being all that is altered. Moreover, even in making the affections. A country whose political parties consider changes which difference in party outlook implies, it is that as a matter of party rectitude they must undo, well that statesmen should have some rules to remind or alter, the transactions which their opponents have them that he who can transform things without violence had with foreign Powers will be the cause of world and sharp breaks is possessed of a higher degree of great- unsettlement, and can neither work out a destiny for ness, and is more likely to do good that will last, than he itself nor lead in world causes. These facts are plain who demands for his work a clean slate, and can write unto commonplace, but in view of the voracity of nothing in history except what begins a new volume, or partisanship in these days, it is not waste of time to remind at least a new chapter. The crudest form of diplomacy it that foreign policy should be guarded against its is that of revolutionary forcefulness, scrapped Treaties, appetite. the clean slate. Small States can indulge in it, and I take it for granted that every Government and every second-rate States play with it, but first-class Powers Opposition, in the interests of the nation; should ever cannot risk it, and cannot afford it. Such a Power must set before themselves the duty of keeping foreign affairs win confidence for steadiness and consistency, and any out of the ordinary partisan arena, and should strive political party which damages that confidence may tickle to give foreign policy the impress of national concern. and please its followers for a time and during the hot But, in practice, serious limits are found to the doctrine. days of a crisis, but the reputation of the country will have If followed absolutely it must mean in the end that the to pay heavily for such a demonstration of party probity. Foreign Office would be controlled by a permanent How happy would a British Foreign Minister be, for bureaucracy, whose personnel would change in the course instance, who could tear up much of what has been of nature, but whose personality could never change. agreed about reparations, and yet, though he may be It also would mean a constitutional alteration in the worried by the watchfulness required if reparations are position of the Foreign Secretary who should then to be prevented from seriously damaging our trade, how, become a quasi-Civil Servant and ought not of necessity foolish would he be if, of his own will and without the to resign with a change of Government. The old Russian- consent of allies with whom we had signed the bargains, Foreign Office was a model of such an organization, he were to end them all by a stroke of his pen and bring duty of persuading his allies to come to new and better agreements, and of meeting the evils which he inherited by new expedients which he devises. Continuity and the evolutionary method are normally the appropriate ways for applying conflicting party principles to the im- perfections of the world. The characteristics of the revolutionary mind are to be studied in their evil effects in far more subtle manifestations than riots and civil war.
A Tory Government with a ponderous majority may by the exercise of an absolute will do more to strengthen the spirit and the mood of Bolshevism in the country than ten years of ranting and frothy Communist propaganda.
If, however, we think of continuity as a virtue and a wisdom in itself, we lose grip on reality and wander into the confused and misty realm of words. What is to be continued ? Plainly not a policy by reason of its having been begun, but a policy only in so far as it promotes national well-being. Our demand for continuity in foreign policy has therefore to depend on two things : the wisdom of the evolutionary as opposed to the revo- lutionary method, and the amount of common agree- ment that exists in what should be the general objective of our foreign policy. Are the conditions under which the country is to retain its place in the world, and main- tain its safety and its honour, so plain that we may reasonably expect that the several political parties will stand upon much common ground regarding them ? It is difficult to say; but I know that many adherents of all parties hold similar views on propositions like the following, and, were general agreement come to regarding them, no change of Government need either encourage our enemies to bluff and squeeze or make our friends doubtful as to whether or not they could continue to rely upon us.
We should undertake no further commitments, especi- ally in territorial administration. Our resources of power and capacity for this work of unknown responsibility are already heavily drawn upon, and ought to be relieved as much as possible. No co-operation with foreign States should involve us in military alliances, and we should with absolute rigidity refuse to be parties to an apparent solution of the problem of national, or indeed international, security by the formation of such alliances. What hap- pens in this respect within the next twelve months is almost certain to settle, not whether there may be another war, but whether that war is inevitable. But a negative position on this is not enough. We must without reserve champion the League of Nations, not as an alliance which, should a war break out, would secure victory to one side, but as a combination of nations to create the machinery and the obligations necessary to maintain peace. These two views are contending for mastery at the present moment, and it depends almost solely upon us which is to prevail and whether security is to be built upon the_sands or upon a rock. In working this out, there may be moments when the risks we have to rim will be disquieting, but we have subscribed to the obligations contained in the League of Nations' Covenant, and without delay we shall have to make up our minds whether when we signed.
that Covenant our tongues were in our cheeks, or whether we knew what we were doing and committed our honour to do it should need arise. In the whole of our policy we should aim at bringing all the nations of Europe into the companionship upon which we are to depend for the fullness of our international life—including trade and conuneree—and peace. Nor can we leave the American- continent out of account. Here again there is a growing agreement amongst those who know the American mind. America can render invaluable service (and has done so) in pacifying Europe, but we must pursue our policy with. America or without it, leaving the initiative to America itself and trying to influence it neither by European smiles nor frowns. American co-operation will -be measured by the character of our European policy, and if we are wise we shall leave it at that.
Such an outlook upon the world as this, and such- a conception of the part that this country has to play amongst the nations, allow full scope for party differences and yet permit all parties to present statements of national policy which, in spite of variations in light and shade, emphasis and relative importance, modes of action and programmes of action, will convey the sense of a common purpose rather than of an aimless wandering and a _ wind-tossed destiny depending upon newspaper stunts or party fortunes. If, however, the conditions of continuity, as I have indicated them, are but party views, and other groups of men and women will pursue different ways to different ends, there is one last con- solation that we all can share. The resistance of cir- cumstance will prevent, except upon the rarest occasions, those violent breaks and those exercises of the absolute will which damage national reputation. In reality, we need not perturb ourselves unduly about the prac- ticability or impracticability of these phrases. Their value lies in the reminders they give us not of what wisdom is, but of some of the elements of which wisdom is composed. When the conflicting considerations of statecraft and national well-being, which an examination of this phrase summons for, review, have been duly weighed, perhaps the best and the fullest verdict we can give is that in the determination of international policy two classes of people are nearly always wrong and mischievous (though even these have their uses): he who so soon as he sees something untoward in the foreign intelligence columns of his morning's paper becomes righteously indignant and wants to know what drastic action the Government has taken to show that it and he himself exist ; and he who never considers the consequences of . what he . feels to be some act of elemental justice, but believes that the injunction to do right and face the possibilities of the heavens, falling, means that he has no responsibility for anything that is likely to happen to himself or to others by reason of his selfish indulgence in his own sentimentality. From either or both of these sections come the evils to the State which the demand for a continuity of foreign policy seeks imperfectly to avoid. And because I must write " imperfectly," I add a further conclusion to the verdict, There is no vade mecum for Foreign Ministers, no general rules of safety . or success which they should pursue devotedly and with strong nerve whether they seem for ...the moment to be making a mess or otherwise of things, but that those filling this office have only one loyalty to observe, loyalty to their country and their country's fame, and only one steady counsellor upon which to lean in selecting their methods and in fulfilling their allegiance— their own good sense.
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