VITAL TO THE EMPIRE

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 106, 1 November 1930, Page 9

VITAL TO THE EMPIRE

LEAGUE OP NATIONS

PRINCE'S ELOQUENT PLE(

(British Official Wireless.) (Received Ist November, noon.)' , ' RUGBY, 31st October. The Prince of Wales, during a striking speech on world peace at the Guildhall dinner given by tha League of Nations Union last night in honour of delegates attending tha Imperial Conference, said: "I am well aware that there are still in all countries some people who profess to have no belief in the efficiency of the League of Nations to prevent another devastating world war. I would ask those people to think a little' deeper, to reflect first that the way to prevent war is not by some sudden and violent action at the eleventh hour, but by the gradual and steady formation of habits o£ international co-operation and mv« tual trust, and, secondly, to % ask themselves, if they distrust tha League, what possible alternative they have to offer for establishing, peace and rebuilding world prosperity. PAX BEITANNICA. "This gathering is in itself one of the most convincing proofs that could be.given of the possibility of interim-, ■tional co-operation on a very extensiva basis. Here is represented one-fourth, of the entire human race, comprisingmen of different races, languages, and. ■conditions, but all under the British Crown by common tradition, of loyalty. They -enjoy complete civil and polical liberty; they maintain, their separate nationalities, and pursue their owa methods of development. They hays passed beyond the stage at which it is the duty of a nation vehemently to exert its independence. That is now accepted as a matter of course, and thera remains the higher and greater duty of co-operation for the good of alii They have solved the problem of disarmament among themselves, for the question of making war against one another has been relegated to the scrap heap. Differences are settled not by resort to arms, not even by formal arbitration, but by friendly meetings and conversations round the table. THE HEAL SECRET. '.'Canada, we are all proud to remember, has set an especially great example. Surely civilisation has by now reached, a point at which we can believe that these facts have some meaning. It is at any rate most vital to our own interests that that should be fulfilled, for the British Commonwealth has frontiers upon every ocean and every continent, and needs not local peace, but world peace. The real secret of the union of the British Commonwealth is surely to be found in the full respect of all members for one another's freedom in a common will to understand and co-operate with' one another, and to observe faithfully all mutual obligations." The King sent a message to the "gathering, expressing the hope, that union, in co-operatipn with similar bodies ia other countries would secure a wholehearted support of public opinion so vital to the ultimate success of, tha League itself. . .