Foreign Undersecretary Richard A. Butler told the House of Commons today that the British Government was not envisaging “economic sanctions” against the Reich in an effort to halt German expansion.
Answering Emanuel Shinwell, Laborite, who asked whether this meant that Britain would take no retaliatory action if Germany should decide to apply economic sanctions against Britain, Butler replied that this question is not in issue “for the time being.”
Morgan Philips Price asked whether the recent United States note to the League of Nations, pledging fuller cooperation with Britain in taking economic measures against potential European “trouble-makers,” and asked what steps Britain could take to secure this cooperation.
“Mr. Price is aware that the reply of the United States Government to which he refers suggests that much remains to be done through international relations for the promotion of human welfare and social, economic and financial matters,” the Foreign Undersecretary said. “Within these fields, the United States Government contemplates maintenance or extension of its collaboration in the League’s technical and non-political activities. The cooperation suggested in question would not appear to fall within the scope of the United States reply. Consequently Lord Halifax, the Foreign Secretary, is unable to consider the steps to which Mr. Price refers.”
Butler was silent, however, when Price suggested that the “general atmosphere” in which the reply was given indicated that there was “a great deal more to the United States reply than is indicated in the answer to my question.”
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