WORLD AFFAIRS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 288, 5 December 1929, Page 6

WORLD AFFAIRS.

A WEEKLY REVIEW, *(By BYSTANDER.) The Kellogg Pact las been called into operatior rather sooner than ita signatories anticipated Britain and the United States have addressed i joint Note to China and Russia reminding then that they and more than fifty other Powers hav< signed an agreement for "the outlawry of war,' and virtually calling upon them to make theii promise good. The chief point of the despatch ii the quotation from Article 11. of the Pact, to this effect: "The high contracting parties agree tha" the settlement or solution of , all disputes o; conflicts which may arise among them shal never be sought except by pacific means." This is certainly sweeping enough, and from the point o: view of either logic or diplomacy the belligerent: will find some difficulty in explaining the preseir situation. Unfortunately there is no reason t< believe that the other Powers, will or can d< anything else to stop the fighting or to enforci their views on the combatants. I fear that neithe; China nor Russia will be vastly impressed by th< warning that their reputation in the eyes of tin civilised world will depend upon "the way in whicl they carry out these sacred promises." However whether the Kellogg Pact proves ineffectual o , not, I feel encouraged by the fact that thi Americans are now actively co-operating witi Britain in the cause of world peace. The New Antarctic. Commander Byrd and his fellow-voyageri have certainly performed a remarkable feat ii circling the South Pole. But the definite claio that the Americans have now put forward fo: the annexation of the regions that the Byre Expedition has discovered or surveyed strikes m< as simply amazing. Of course they have appealec to the Monroe Doctrine, which forbids any kini of European "interference" in the Wester; Hemisphere. But they might just as well cal European immigration an infringement of th< famous Doctrine as attach such a term to thi discoveries and explorations of Byrd's British anc Scandinavian forerunners in the Antarctic Seas Then they tell ue that Wilkes Land wa! first sighted by an American, and that it i: "indefinite in area." Apparently the argument ii that any regions that Byrd can sight from hi: aeroplane rnuet straightway become Americai unless they are already ring-fenced and boundary marked by someone else. So far as Wilkes Lane is concerned, the most curious feature of the clain lies in this, that though the American Wilke< sighted this land in. 1840, his name was not giver to this forbidding and desolate coast till 1912 when the Australian Antarctic Expeditioi honoured it with the title of their Americai predecessor. But the British flag has been hoistec on Wilkes Land, and it was definitely includet in the list of British possessions by the Imperia Conference of 1926. Now, because its boundaries are "indefinite" and Byrd in his aeroplane has seei some land like it many hundreds of miles off, ii is to be American. The American sense of humou; has been termed a national calamity, and it mighi well be so here. I am glad to observe that i distinguished Scandinavian who accompanies Amundsen and Scott to Antarctica has taken thie opportunity to point out that if "exploration" ir any sense of the term is a valid basis for a clain of sovereignty, then Norway and Britain were first and second in the race to the South Pole and Byrd, though an "also started," comes in i long way behind them. The Watch by the Rhine.

Within the past week scenes of great moment to the peace of Europe and the future relations of France and Germany were enacted on the Rhine. By the Peace of Versailles it was declared that the Allies should retain certain strong positions on Germany's western frontier, the localities chosen being ilu "bridgeheads" of Cologne, Coblenz and Mafrri, with the adjacent districts. It was agreed that if Germany faithfully carried out her treaty obligations the Allies should retire from these positions at intervals oi five years, starting from 1920. When 1925 came the Allies decided that the Germans had not yet given decisive proof of their good faith, and the withdrawal from Cologne was postponed till 1926. The Germans took the warning, accepted the Locarno Pact and entered the League of Nations, and now the second stage in the withdrawal, which was not due at earliest till next year, has been carried out. The British troops began to leave a little before the Belgians and the French, to whom the Americans had transferred the Coblenz district in 1922. The Mainz bridgehead should bo retained by the Allies till 1935; but the assurances of M. Briand and the desire of the present British Government to do everything in ite power to heal the breach between France and Germany, indicate that the Allies do not intend to wait eo long. However, everything etill depends on the attitude and the temper of the Germans, and their success in convincing the Allies that they really mean to keep the peace permanently.

Iron Hand and Velvet Glove. A few months ago Austria, after a prolonged and dangerous political crisis, in which the public peace and the existence of the State were constantly threatened by armed bands of Socialists and Fascists contending for mastery, took the desperate step of handing over its destinies to its Chief of Police. Of course, Herr Schoeber is a great deal more than a policeman, but it. wa3 chiefly in that capacity that he had gained the confidence and goodwill of the people, and as virtual Dictator he has fully justified their trust in him. Without ever having recourse to violent methods of coercion, he has induced most of thu Heimwehr (the Fascist organisation) and the Socialists to disarm and to co-operate to soma limited extent in the public interest. The "Times," in commenting on this remarkable achievement, describee Schoeber as a real statesman and remarks incidentally that he has won the respect and confidence of the diplomats and financiers of Europe ae well as the admiration and esteem of his own people. This seems to me much the best news that the world has heard from Vienna for many a weary year. Private Gain, Public Loss. The new Labour Government of Australia has taken the extreme step of placing an embargo on the exportation of stud sheep. This form of trading has assumed large dimensions in Australia of late. The Minister of Customs recently announced at Canberra that nearly 23,000 stud sheep had been exported from Australia since 1919, and they had been sold for, roughly, £390,000. The chief buyers have been South Africa and Eussia, and it is evidently the intention of the Goveru-cents in these countries to grow wool on a large scale. This means dangerous competition in t'n« to be faced by the Australian wool-growere, who are already finding it difficult to hold their own in a market constantly invaded by cheap substitutes. The prospects of the wool industry are just now anything but encouraging, and the circumstances are such that the action of the Federal Government seems thoroughly justifiable.. It has been said that no Government should allow an industry worth £70,000,000 a year to the country to be destroyed merely to give large profits to a handful of breeders and stock-dealexe, and that sentence spj $o me to coyer the whole ground.