" NO. 1 TRIUMPH."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 229, 27 September 1935, Page 7

" NO. 1 TRIUMPH."

UNITED LEAGUE. Significance of Decision Stressed. PROFESSOR ALGIE'S VIEW. "It is a No. 1 triumph for the League," declared Professor R. M. Algie, lecturer in International Law at Auckland University College, when the cable message indicating unanimity of the League Council was shown to him this morning. "The news is of tremendous importance," he said, "because, even if put at its lowest value, it means that the members of the Council of the League are determined to work within the terms of the Covenant and along the lines of collective action. < "It should be remembered tliat Article XII. of the Covenant provides the two methods between which the disputants are expected to choose. They can submit their dispute to arbitration or judicial settlement on the one hand, or to inquiry by the Council on the other. It is well known that the latter of these two methods was selected by the parties to the present dispute. Articles XIII. and XIV. deal with the procedure that is to be adopted when the dispute is referred to arbitration or judicial settlement and obviously they have no bearing on the present quarrel. Significance of Clause XV.

"When inquiry by the Council is resorted to, Article XV. of the Covenant comes into play. This clause tells us that the duty of the Council is to be essentially a duty of conciliation, and members of the Council are to use every effort to effect a settlement. If they succeed, they publish the terms of the settlement to'the world at large, but if they fail then they are under an obligation to prepare a report setting forth the salient facts, together with a statemen of their recommendations. "If this report is unanimous (excluding, of course, the disputants—in this case Italy and Abyssinia)," said Professor Algie, "then every member of the League of Nations is" under an obligation not to go to war with the particular country that proceeds to carry out its recommendations. This would mean that if the Council recommends a given line of action and Abyssinia at once sets about doing what is required of her, then Italy would violate-the Covenant of the League if thereafter she took any hostile action against Abyssinia. "Moreover, Italy would, as a logical result, find herself technically at wai with all the other members of the League. If, however, the report of the Council should be only a majority report, then the members of the League, including Italy, are quite free, so far at least as the Covenant itself is concerned, to take whatever action they think best. ' "It will readily be seen, therefore, why this cable news is so important," said Professor Algie. "It gives some indication of a degree of unanimity in the Council, and thus in itself will be of tremendous importance as a factor in bringing about a settlement." In his last statement P-ofessor Algie indicated that there was a grave danger that some ill-advised action by Abyssinia on the frontier —"It might even be the acceptance of a bait," he said— would set a blaze going and remove the whole matter from the hands of the League. With this taken into consideration, Professor Algie thought that the decision of the League on this occasion was the best news that had been heard from Geneva since the signing of the Covenant.

BRITAIN'S REPLY. FRANCE AND AN AGGRESSOR. (Received 1.30 p.m.) RUGBY, September 26. The British Government's reply to the French Government's inquiries regarding any act of aggression in Europe was handed to-day to the French Ambassador to London, M. Corbin. The text will be published after the French Government has received it, probably some time next week. N.S.W. LABOUR OPINION. NEUTRALITY IN CASE OF WAR. SYDNEY, this day. The Labour Council decided that the policy of the New South Wales Union should one of neutrality in the ItaloAbyssinian dispute. Militants urged support for sanctions as the only possible, practical way of preventing war, but they were d/ift-ftted.