"BE OPTIMISTIC."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 204, 29 August 1935, Page 11

"BE OPTIMISTIC."

THE WORLD OUTLOOK. KEYNOTE OF CONFERENCE. LEAGUE OF NATIONS UNION. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Wednesday. '"It is becoming more and more clear that it is an urgent matter that the League and the Covenant be upheld by as many people as possible," declared the Rev. P. H. Wilkinson, when opening to-day's conference of the New Zealand League of Nations Union. The increase in membership, he- went on to say, was a very clear indication that people all over the country were realising that League activities and League ideals were the world's only hope. Nations were in a state of * turmoil and there was a lapse back to armaments. In fact there was a greater need than ever Tor League ideals. "Present indications may point to a somewhat dark future," continued Mr. Wilkinson, "but the whole of the postwar period has been a succession of apparently desperate crises which have not really eventuated. In fact On last twenty years has been one of the longest periods in the world's history without some major clash between the Powers. Due thought should therefore be given to the part that the League has played. Kven now it is not the time to be despondent, and we should be optimistic even regarding the dispute between Italy and Abyssinia." "That the present situation is precarious in the extreme no one can doubt," says the annual report of the union. "The European situation has become acute with panic-inspired defensive measures and evaporating security —the two hemispheres of a vicious circle. Sentiment supports national animosities, which arc rapidly precipitating armed activities. Reason suggests that the only alternative to widespread disaster is to exalt League arbitrament to a sovereign place. At such a time it is well to recollect that the history of the post-war period has been but a sequence of such acute situations and that hitherto disaster has been averted. "It may be humanity is still being granted a further reprieve in which to work out some better way of facing and solving international disputes. "While political disputes gain a prominent place in the Press and, consequently in popular opinion', it is necessary to remind ourselves that the settlement of international disputes is only one function of the League of Nations. The routine work of the League is gradually building the League into the fabric of international relationship. Even now the League is so fully established that its necessity is axiomatic among all straight-thinking wellinformed people."