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Another and a very curious minor factor should be mentioned. It causes much puzzlement to observers on the Continent. The British think even of foreign policy as a sort of game. Unlike the Germans or the French, to whom politics is a matter of life or death, the British are capable of extreme detachment in the direction of their complex foreign affairs. Europe is a sort of stage;the play that is going on is a play. And if someone misses his cue, or blunders with his lines, the average Briton always assumes that the drama is merely a rehearsal, and can be played over again—better.
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Roughly there are two groups in the foreign office. The first comprises the pro-Leaguers who are idealists. They hope through a system of collective security to bring Germany into the amicable concert of great powers. They view war as a literal horror; the Abyssinian crisis meant to them the collapse of moral law in Europe. The second group, mostly represented by older men, are willing enough to give the League a bit of rope, but they distrust the efficacy of the collective security principle, and put their hopes in （1） a powerful navy, and （2） isolationism. The opinions of this group served to encourage Germany, because isolation—noninterference in Europe—is tantamount to taking the German side.
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Notes
1705042336
1705042337
Sir Samuel Hoare, English statesman, secretary of state for India, foreign minister （1935）, then first lord of the Admiralty, often spoken of as the next prime minister.
1705042338
1705042339
Sir Austen Chamberlain, English statesman, approaching his eighties, has filled practically every great political office in England.
1705042340
1705042341
the Channel, the English Channel, separating England from Europe.
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1705042343
the Low Countries, Holland and Belgium.
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1705042345
Trevelyan, George Otto （1838-1928）, English politician, biographer, and historian.
1705042346
1705042347
Tudor times, the times of the English sovereigns from Henry VII to Elizabeth, from 1485 to 1603.
1705042348
1705042349
hypothetical future contingencies, thing that may happen in the future but based on a supposition that may not be founded on truth.
1705042350
1705042351
Locarno, the Pact of Locarno, a set of treaties concluded at Locarno in 1925, with France, Germany, and Belgium, as chief parties, and Great Britain and Italy as guarantors, intended to secure the inviolability of the frontiers and other safeguards of peace. Locarno is in Switzerland.
1705042352
1705042353
apex, highest point, culmination.
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1705042355
Pax Britannica, the peace of Britain, the abstention from war enforced on States subject to the British Empire.
1705042356
1705042357
sanctions crisis . When Mussolini made use of the Walwal Incident of December 5, 1934, to descend upon Abyssinia, especially after October 3, 1935, Britain countered by proposing that sanctions （penalties） might be applied to Italy for violation of the Covenant of the League of Nations. But sanctions started slowly and failed.
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Walter Duranty, newspaper observer who has written extensively, especially on Russia, his Duranty Reports Russia being extensively quoted.
1705042360
1705042361
extreme detachment, standing absolutely aloof from and being completely unaffected by surroundings, opinions, etc.
1705042362
1705042363
misses his cue, forgets to speak when he is supposed to speak in a play; misses the moment when he should come in.
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blunders with his lines, makes mistakes when speaking his lines in a play.
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1705042367
rehearsal, a preparatory performance of a play or other entertainment.
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the pro-Leaguers, those in favor of the League of Nations.
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1705042371
the Abyssinian crisis, precipitated when Italy attacked and took over control of Abyssinia.
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isolationism, Britain standing apart, isolating herself, not having anything much to do with other nations, not entering into pacts with other nations.
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tantamount, equivalent to.
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Questions
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1705042379
1. On what concept is British foreign policy based?
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