THE PEACE BALLOT

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 241, 25 July 1935, Page 6

THE PEACE BALLOT

DEPUTATION TO MR BALDWIN. SUPPORT OF THE LEAGUE. (United Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, July 23. Mr Stanley Baldwin, Prime Minister, and Sir Samuel Hoars, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, • today received a deputation of the organisers of the National Declaration on Peace and disarmament, commonly known as the Peace Ballot, in which 11,500,000 cast votes of an estimated possible of 30,000,000. Miss K. D. Courtney said the ballot appealed to women because it represented recognition of the value, judgment, and intelligence of the ordinary citizen, and because it enlisted the support of people of all parties. . , , The Prime Minister welcomed the deputation, which, he said, would be aware that the foreign policy of the Government was founded upon the league. That had been made plain many times in declarations, and by the Government’s action at Geneva, where it had taken the lead in cm deavouring to secure the settlement of international disputes hy peaceful means in accordance with the covenr ant. He would not discuss the questions submitted in the ballot in detail. Some of them, frankly, ho would wish to see put in a different form, but he could not but be grateful for the deputation’s action in coming to see him, and to know that the object of the ballot was not to criticise the Government, but to show the large volume of public opinion behind it in the efforts it was making to-day to maintain the authority of the league.