WORLD PEACE.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18549, 26 November 1925, Page 9

WORLD PEACE.

NEW ZEALAND AND THE LEAGUE. A RHODES SCHOLAR'S VIEWS. (fROlt OUR OWN COP.BESrOKDEST.) LONDON, October 7. Mr Richard Hill, the 1925 New Zealand Rhodes Scholar, was one of the speakers at a. meeting of the Leagua of Nations Union at Hartlepool. Mr 8. Tefft, au American Rhodes Scholar, spoke on the attitude of the United States towards lite League, and the New Zealander gave his views on what the League stood for in the Dominion.

In reading the papers lately, said Mr Hill,, he liau noticed various schemes for the better running of the nation tev the total abolition of the League of Nations, and four of them advocated the withdrawal of England. Such schemes, he felt sure, would not find favour with our Dominions. Tho Covenant had been signed by their representatives as a part of the Peace Treaty, and they felt in honour bound to uphold it.

From a commercial point of view it paid them to do so, because it was impossible to trade with a country whoso currency was not stable. They had been slowly building up a trade with England, France, and Germany, and now that Austria and Hungary had been put on their feet financially through the efforts of the League, they were gradually extending that trade. It •was therefore of commercial importance to them to belong to a body which helped to stabilise currency. The speaker then referred to the colour question, which was a very grave one in New Zealand, and ought to be looked on as an international question, not a national one. People ovr here might enquire by what right they tried to exclude the Yellow Races, an (I it was possible that some New Zealand statesmen might reply: "One of tho two must go under, and we are jolly well determined not to be that one." This was a reply which would not appeal to the majority of rightthinking men and women. Who, then, would arbitrate on tlins question! In the opinion of the speaker there was only one body which could possibly do so, and that was the League of Nations, and this fact constituted another link in the chain which bound the Dominions to the League.

The Only Alternative. He noticed that some people over hero were afraid of the word "Imperial," but ill the Dominions they really tried to think Imperially. He delined Imperialism as the bond of moral friendship, which united the various parts of the Empire, but this spirit of comradeship must be extended beyond the limits of the Empire. No citizen could be worthy of the name if he did not consider the great interests which lay beyond it. What was the alternative to the League! As far as he could see there appeared to be nothing but the Communist International, and in it the representation of class was the highest form which could possibly be arranged. He objected to this, because class was represented' and not all classes. For instance, the class of students to which he happened to belong was unrepresented, while the League had an academic centre especially for them. Other interests were represented as well, and the International Labour Organisation had the whole-hearted approval of Mr Ramsay Mac Donald. The International Court "had dealt with 20 cases of great importance. If we contributed to this and cases were settled satisfactorily by it, we should sec a new system of impartial international justice arise. It was, said the speaker, "no twaddling idealism. to belong to the League." In his opinion the "twaddling idealists" were those who said that human natifre would never change. The Dominions desired to convince other countries that it was better for them and for us to establish a system of harmonv.