The Press Monday, August 15, 1921. The League of Nations.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17224, 15 August 1921, Page 6

The Press Monday, August 15, 1921. The League of Nations.

-V* have been made jtfJl|shV«TOtry inline work of enlisting the .ideals of the VrluovenanVof'ihe League of Nations. ►'; * Church, tore registered , y very representative , in Dutiedin decided the * Mother of tie Union and set tip a'strong committee to that end. This ul a movement to which every humane jayd sensible man should wish success, >|rat( i&injfcnok succeed unless it be-' come the movement of all classes and parties. In Canada a very vigorous beginning has been made, and 1 a Canadian League/of Nations Society has < been established. The inaugural meeting, which took place in Ottawa on May 31st, was convened 6y an influential committee, which included General Sir Arthur Currie and Sir R. Falconer, the" president of Toronto University, and -was presided over by the GovernorGeneral. The 1 keynote of his Excellency's speech -was insistence upon the fact that as the League, imperfect m some respects as it might he, held out good premise of a satisfactory alternawar, "an atmosphere which "would make the League a success L /"anise be created by deliberate or' * " ganisation.'' A. series of strong speeches in support of the League idea i - -were made by various leading figures in the public life of the Dominion, and jr-f lette» commending the enterprise were jUj sent Sy Mr Meighen and Mr Mackenzie Liberal leader. The leader '. aelf a£d;his T party to the Society, and > / Sir~<3eqEsßß Foster, oty' behalf of the ' 'the __ need <- for /.He did-notJook, of any

" If," he said, in a simple but arresting phrase, "if the world wants peace, "it can obtain peace." The Society was duly formed, and Sir Robert Borden, in accepting the presidency, defflt with the current notion that the American people are. not friendly to the League. Before the war, as he pointed out, there were in the United States more active organisations for the purprse of securing the settlement of international disputes by arbitration or judicial decision than in any other country in the world. Since the meeting waj held in Ottawa, the real anxiety of America for peace and sanity has been attested by Mr Harding's summoning of tho 1/isarmament Conference. The example of Canada is one which might well be followed by New Zealand. There fire, we know, many people who confuse the supporters of the League with our old friends the war-time "pacifists," but neither m Canada nor in Britain are tho active friends of the League "pacifists" in the odious sense. The leaders are thoroughgoing patriots, who have earned by their war records the right to encourage opposition to the war-spirit. Mr Massey, we may mention, is one of the officers of the British League of Nations Union. Membership of a League of Nations Union or Society i's compatible ■with membership of the Navy League, for there is no inconsistency between zeal for adequate national defence on the one hand, and zeal for the supersession of war as a means of settling (if it ever does really, settle) the quarrels of nations.