BRITAIN AND GENEVA.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 230, 28 September 1929, Page 7 (Supplement)

BRITAIN AND GENEVA.

! NEED OF STRONG AND j ENDURING LEAGUE, OPI3fIOX OF FAMOUS PEACE CHAMPION. "I SHOULD LIKE TO SEE A CHANGE IN OUR ATTITUDE." [(By VISCOUNT CECIL, of Chelwood.) His Majesty King George has said, "Nothing is more essential than a stron" and enduring League of Nations. Millione of British men and women stanu ready to help if only they be shown the way. I commend the cause to all the citizens of my Empire." Millions of British men and women stand ready .. . True. But His Majesty recognises also the chief difficulty that confronts the nation demanding international peace is demonstrated by the clause, "If only they be shown the way." Nevertheless, there is a way, and that way lies along wider paths of knowledge, greater familiarity with the work now being undertaken by the I/eagus of Nations, the realisation that this organisation is not an academic body but rather a practical, business-like concern, handling situations bigger than those with which other civic groups have had to deal. Let us dismiss the popular picture oi idealistic elderly gentlemen and lady reformers employing a number of stenographers to type reams that nobody ever reads, and substitute in its place the league as it really is. The League of Nations actually is a busy organisation, where certain ideals are applied to con.ditions, and a great deal of business — transacted much as at a Labour union meeting or a chartered accountants' conference —is accomplished. The League claims that war, being criiel, uneconomic and stupid, is not the solution to international disagreements. Therefore it outlaws war. Its business is to discover a working basis upon which nations may remain friendly and at the eame time protect their own respective interests. I know that those who have fiot studied the League believe that it would advise only beautiful gestures and renunciation of property and other rights, in a word, anything that would avert war. . This is an unfortunate delusion. ' The League advocates nothing inpractical. It claims merely that an equitable arrangement must be made without first sacrificing , precious lives iand inflicting unnecessary suffering. It claims, in effect, "The world is civilised. Somewhere in the world there is sufficient intelligence to devise an arrangement that will save' bloodshed, and we must find.- this intelligence and apply it. It 1 is done daily in the law courts all over the world. ; Why should we deal less intelligently with masses of people than we do with the individual, or fail to: adjust their rather more important differences?" '..'..

A World Jury. Surely that is practical rather than idealistic. Let me put it in this way: .Wβ -want a world-jury—the League is that jury. War can be abolished. This we have proved. In 1920, Sweden and Finland were at loggerheads over the possession of a number of islands in the Gulf of Finland. Peeling ran high until the matter was referred to the League of Nations. This body made an exhaustive and impartial examination. The islands were given to Finland, while special rights protected the Swedish-speaking The -Jesuit was a continued friendship between the two countries, and peace for both the Finnish.' and Swedish peoples. Snstead of fighting, they have applied themselves to industrial development, so that , there continues prosperity and an exchange of products. . . '...._,. More delicate and more, diffilcult was the adjustment affected by the League in the very heart of the "powder magazine of ;Europe," when friction arose between Greece and Bulgaria, in 1925. Troops were actually marching; upon one another when Bulgaria .appealed to the League, • which ordered- a withdrawal of armed forces within sixty hours. Both countries obeyed, and thus, that, which might have been the beginniny of another great upheaval, : was averted. A commission;'was sent by the Leag«e to Snvestigate the matters in dispute. Suggestions that satisfied both sides were accepted. . .' Nor is that the'only settlement'effected by the League % of Nations.in that portion of- Europe, that has always been regarded as a danger-spot. Many other types of dispute are also (settled* amicably by the Paramount Court of International Justice. An example of the work done by this section of the League' was given in 1923,' when the question arose as to the liability for: military service of British nationals Resident in French protectorates. French citizens are compelled to perform a year's military service, of course, but the idea was repugnant to Britons. The French Government refused to submit the question to the League, but Great Britain brought up the matter, and, after a while, France, stipulating that the Court should make clear that it was advising upon a matter that was not purely domestic, (evidently France feared that her internal government might be thought by the rest of the world -to be the subject of a League ruling), agreed to arbitrate, so that eventually the question was settled in a manner agreeable to both governments. Thisj-qf course, would not have been a matter sufficiently grave to cause war, but it was one "that would lead to a deal of ill-feeling and interfere considerably in the peaceable trade relations as well as diplomatic relations between the two great powers. Industrial Activities. Almost as important to the average man are the industrial activities of the League. Alas, very little of this becomes known to the very people whom it most effects.. It is.so lacking in spectacular quality that it does not make very interesting news, with the result that people learn very little about it. And, nevertheless, it 'was the League that stabilised Austrian and Hungarian money and saved these countries from Bankruptcy. In 1922, Austria could not pay for raw material imported to keep her factories going; she could not even pay her Civil servants. The Chancellor, in despair, appealed to the League. Within eight weeks a scheme had been evolved by the League which safeguarded the territorial integrity of, Austria, an external loan was raised for her, and by means of disinterested control over the expenditure of this loan and certain of her revenues,'her financial stability was re-established.

A similar scheme was put into operation for Hungary in 1924. In both countries, the league's control is now at an end. The necessity foxits aid has disappeared. Schemes, basically the same, have restored certain portions of Asia Minor to financial security, thus enabling the Continuation of trade so badly affected E by the war. World's Health. Little is realised, too, of the debt that , the world owes the League of Nations ' J for its high standard of health. The League has done the most merciful work in the world in preventing epidemics and in raising the standard of back- ' ward nations—which, it must be remembered, spread disease in the more civilised portions of the globe. The League runs •' an intelligence service both at Geneva ? and at Singapore to deal with the -1 world's health and has organised excellent research work for the prevention and cure of disease. Owing to the activities of the League, the traffic in drugs has been decreased to a very considerable extent, and, more important perhaps, the whole world has been aroused to the menace of such illicittrade. And the traffic in women that flourished exceedingly has dwindled almost out of existence. One of the League's most important tasks is the protection of labour, and the establishment, all over the world, of proper conditions for the worker. States that have signed the labour covenant are pledged to see to it that the worker is paid adequately and that no employee works for more than fortyeight hours a week. Conventions have been adopted which provide for the eight-hour day, measures against unemployment, workingmen's compensations and the prohibition of harmful substances in materials handled by people, such as white lead in paint. India, as a beginning, has reduced the working week from about eighty to sixty hours already, and has forbidden the employment of children under twelve years of age. Formerly, children of nine were permitted to work. In Japan, the employment of children under twelve has also been .prohibited, as the outcome of the work of the League. Smaller matters that affect the friendliness of one nation for another are discussed also, such -as methods of simplifying Custom House formalities, and so on, and facilitating trade, so that_ markets are thrown open and production increased. The League, too, fulfills the important function of being a clearing-house of knowledge. Conditions that existed in one country and- were unknown in another are now explained to everybody so that all may take the best from each system eo far evolved and apply it in the home land. I have, given in barest outline and with many omissions an idea of the work at, present being done by the League of Nations. And that I have done so is because I feel that it is not sufficiently understood nor thought about with nearly enough care in view of its enormous—l may say its vitalinfluence in determining the fate of nations, and thus of individuals. Change of Attitude Advocated. I should like to see a change of attitude toward the League of Nations because the League of Nations represents the most civilised objective • toward which the world has aimed in its long, long history. I should like, to see children taught about the League of Nations, that each may add his strength and will to the carrying on of its work. I should like to think that the future generation is being taught about the League not only at school but by fathers and mothers who wish to train their children in the .ways of peace and goodwill and good sense—good sense, the quality that so many people lack and the lack of which makes the .League's work so much more difiieult>ttian it need be. I should like to see impressed upon our daughters and sons,'too, that it is a sacred task to preserve , the. peace, health and happiness of the world and that nations do not become great by war but by means of development possible only in times of peace. I want to see our boys and girls join the League of Nations Union, and find out for themselves what the League will mean in their lives. I want them to know that it is the one body which can redress their wrongs, national or international, and the one body that will strive to institute sane and working conditions, the one body that is trying to get rid of war and its accompanying horrors. I should like to see, in place of the tolerant smile with which people greet a mention of the League of Nations, a real interest in the work of world-wide importance that it is accomplishing.,! should like people to appreciate the fact that economic cpnditions and- social conditions air over the world are feeling the benefit even now of the work done by the League in the past, and there is still wider scope. for any group organised in the international lines of the League. I should like the world to understand that the League is the home of scientific, economic and industrial progress, and that without such an organisation to circulate ideas and knowledge, quite apart from its power to preserve peaceheadway must, be, of necessity, slower and the standard of living lower, which means unnecessary suffering and 'privation in the world. This change is the one to which 1 looked forward when I worked side by side with President Wilson, the man whose burning idealism did so much to bring into existence the League of Nations and it is a change that, although slow in making itself manifest, is bound to come in time, because it is an essential part of civilisation.