3
 
have always regarded them as our first line of defense 
and that any threat to their security would most likely 
cause armed intervention on our part. However, they are 
also aware of our traditional antipathy to power politics, 
and naturally discount the possibility of getting from us 
an advance commitment to protect the security of the 
British Isles. In any event, she will at all times follow 
a policy of seeking such assistance as we will be willing 
to give.                                                   
 
       The next best "hedge" would be to strengthen the 
bonds of the Commonwealth. Lord Halifax in his Toronto 
speech developed the thesis that the mother country and 
the Dominions should speak "with one voice" in inter-
national affairs. As desirable as this might be from 
the point of view of the mother country, there is but 
little chance of the Dominions accepting the idea,
Judging from the reception which the speech had in the 
several capitals and the opposition expressed at the 
Prime Ministers Conference last year.. The interests of 
the Dominions are very often different from those of the 
mother country, and the inability of the mother country 
to defend them has been demonstrated. If anything, the 
political ties are becoming weaker rather than stronger. 
Here again, however, Britain will do what she tan to 
strengthen herself in this way.
 
       The policy of drawing the nations of Western Europe 
into close association with the British Commonwealth is 
in furtherance of this same end. General Smuts was the 
first prominent official to give expression to the idea, 
which he did in a speech before the Empire Parliamentary
Association on November 25, 1943. Smuts recommended that
the Western European nations align themselves with Britain 
-- for their own good as well as Britain's. The countries 
involved would be, at first, France, Belgium, Holland and, 
possibly, Norway and Denmark. The precise nature of the 
alignment has never been defined, and in fact most of the 
talk about it has been done in unofficial, tittles -- doubt-
less purposely so. It has nevertheless, caused official 
repercussions in the countries concerned, as well as in 
Russia. Generally speaking, the idea appears to be to 
offer these countries something in the nature of dominion 
status in the British Commonwealth. It might properly be 
regarded as an extension of the Halifax thesis of one 
 
                                                   "voice