Page:Paul Samuel Reinsch - Secret Diplomacy, How Far Can It Be Eliminated? - 1922.djvu/177



of the world to find themselves hampered in their mu- tual relations by treaties of which those countries know nothing, that, I think, is an evil. . I do not say that there have not been secret treaties which were inevitable; but I do say that, if they are necessary, they are a necessary evil. Please remember that two nations make a treaty together for their mutual advantage. Both are desirous of passing it. One nation says, 'It is against our interest that this treaty should be made public at present.' The other says, 'We do not like being com- mitted to any treaty the terms of which we cannot make public at once.' Which is going to prevail? ... It does not rest with any single Foreign Office, British or other. It is always an arrangement between two pos- sibly three or four, Foreign Offices. You cannot lay down and I do not think you would be wise to lay down, an absolute rule that under no circumstances, and for no object, could you so far concede the point as to say that a treaty is to be made which is not to become public property. I am perfectly ready to admit that that is not a process which, to me, is a very agreeable one. To reduce secret treaties to the narrowest possible limits should, I think, be the object of every responsible statesman who has the control of foreign affairs. Be- yond that I do not feel inclined to go. I do not see any signs of a grasp of the true realities of life in the Mo- tion before us. You should have your control over those who manage your affairs, but it is not the kind of control which the honorable Member wishes to set up with his Committee of forty or fifty. It is quite a dif- ferent control. You must know, broadly speaking, what the general lines of policy are, and I maintain that that is thoroughly known with regard to foreign affairs at this moment by every man in this House who takes the