The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 1910. BRITAIN AND THE LEAGUE.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 70, 22 March 1919, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 1910. BRITAIN AND THE LEAGUE.

For the cause that lacks assist α-ntm, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

Of all Allied statesmen, President Wilson is most clearly and closely associated in the public mind with the idea of the League of Nations, but, without detracting from his immense services to the world in keeping the idea in the forefront of discussion and backing it with all the force of his intellect and personality, it is only right to point out that he and his countrymen have by no means a monopoly of this line of idealism. British statesmen were discussing and laying down at least some of the principles of a League of Nations before America abandoned her neutrality Indeed, one of the most important objects of such a League, enforcement of respect for international obligations, was from the first recognised by Britain's leaders as one of the supreme issues of the struggle. During the Inter stages of the war, the theory and practice of the League has been freely and sympathetically discussed in England, and several definite schemes for such a body have been produced by prominent men, both in and out of the Government. Perhaps the most interesting of these is that formulated by General Smuts, who for a considerable period of the war was a member of Britain's War Cabinet. That General Smuts, after leading the Boers f-gainst the British, should have become a British general in the field, and a member of the highest council of the Empire in its most critical time, is one of the most thrilling romances of history, and surely its interest will be heightened still further to the historian by the fact that this loyal alien and former enemy of Britain prepared for the education of the people of the Empire and the benefit of the Peace Conference a scheme at once idealistic and practical for the formation of a League of Nations. 'This scheme, and the proposals and suggestions by Lord Robert Cecil, have borne fruit at the Peace Conference. Mr. Wilson's contribution to the movement has been theoretical rather than practical, and it will probably be found that the compact of the League of Nations that the Conference has drawn up is, in its practical proposals, to a large extent the work of General Smuts and his colleague. General Smuts contemplates a League that will prevent war, but will do more; that will he "a great organ of the ordinary peaceful life of civilisation, as the foundation of the new international system which will be erected on the ruins of this -war, and as the starting-point from which the peaco arrangements of the forthcoming conference should be made." Here we think he is wrong; he puts the League of Nations first, as the "primary and basic task" of, the Conference, instead of making its establishment follow the settlement of the terms of peace. His League would be managed by a small council of the live Great Powers, with the addition in rotation of representatives of the smaller Powers. Germany would be added as soon a3 she had a stable Government. The members of the League would bind themselves not to go to war with one another, without submitting the dispute to arbitration and waiting for a decision, and then not to fight against a member which complied with the award of the Court. There is to bo no conscription, but States must have means of defence. There are to be no " annexations" of enemy territory, but the nonGerman subjective peoples will be disannexed from the Central Empires and re-united to their parent peoples, and in the government of enemy territory that is taken over, the wishes of the people should be followed fairly and reasonably. General Smuts is a strong supporter of the mandatory principle. He rightly disapproves of joint international administration, which he wittily describes as resulting in "paralysis tempered by intrigue," and prefers the nomination of one State to act on behalf of the League of Nations. The League must make its wishes clear to the mandatory Government, and must reserve "complete power of ultimate control and supervision, as well as the right to appeal to it from the territory or people affected against any gToss breach of the mandate by the mandatory State." He would also have in such territories —let Mr. Hughes take note —the policy of the open economic door.

This mandatory idea has been incorporated in the draft of the League of Nations, but ficneral Smuts' proposals seem to have been whittled down con-

siderably. His Leatpie is a very live and active body. It would keep a vigilant eye upon the welfare of the natives of the Pacific, and watch ovor the growth of the new States in Europe, such as Finland, Poland, and Bohemia. To his mind there is an interesting resemblance between the functions of such a League, and the working arrangements of the

British Empire. With us, common policy is laid down by conferences between the principal and constituent States, and executive action is taken by the individual Governments. The minor con-

stituents of the Empire are not represented at these conferences, but are administered by these constituent States; in thp same way individual Powers look after certain territories under the supreme control of the

League of Nations. In these minor territories of the Empire there are in

vogue the policies of the open door and non-military police, which are suggested for the territories held under a mandate from the League. In his opinion the broad features of our Empire's government and of the League closely resemble each other, and he suggests tl.it the League, working on similar lines to ourselves, could not fail to be reasonably sueessful. But he p.dmits that what in our case is secured by common allegiance, would, in the League's case, have to be "elaborately provided for by special arrangement." Here is the whole danger attending the League; elaborate arrangements which may break down because they are artificial.

However, our object now is not Su much to criticise General Snmts' scheme, as to give a summary of his ideas, and to draw attention to their significance as representative of British, thought, and especially thought in high circles. Radical pacifists arc for ever complaining of the lukewarmneos of the British official world towards the League of Nations. Further, the scheme is the scheme of a colonial, from a continent where the white man is accustomed to keep the black man in subjection. This mandatory idea, with ite solicitude for the welfare of subject peoples, comes from a Boer, and the Boers are not noted for their humanity to natives. It comes, too. from a man who hiinse'f has conquered an immense area of German territory, and is fully alive to the danger of having the Germans as neighbours. We must admit that whatever its faults may be, this scheme of General Smuts shows a high level of statesmanship, both intellectually and morally.