GENERAL SMUTS ON PEACE.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19812, 27 December 1929, Page 9

GENERAL SMUTS ON PEACE.

THE HANDMAIDEN OF JUSTICE.

FOLLOW IP THE PEACE PACT. ifRDM OCR CWN COKRBSrOXDEKT 1 LONDON", November 1">. Cii neral Smut?, who has been lecturing at Oxford under the Rhodes Trust scheme, was one of the speakers at the PVace Commemoration Dinner held in the Guildhall last night, and organised by the League of Nations Union. Supporting the prineipal t'.>a»i—the League or Nations—General Smuts said that the edueative and propaganda work of the Union had been of priceless value to the omse of peace. Its organisation had been above Party and cut across all Parties. It had drawn to it those men and women who really believed in world peace. To liun personally it had been a consolation that, in the trying years behind them. South Africa could help the good cause by nominating I/ord Cecil and Protessor Gilbert Murray as South African representatives on the Councils of the League. What those two men in particular had done lor the League and the Union it would he impossible to exaggerate. t Cheers.■> The public had'helpod generously with funds, and must continue to help. There was today no better form of missionary enterprise than that service of the "cause of world peace. Let them continue to make their contributions to that mission of peace and goodwill among men. In making their money contributions to the Union they were not only helping to realise a great ideal, but they were in a very real sense paying their small insurance against the greater danger that threatened civilisation.

Bright Prospects. "The League has passed through many ups and downs during its 10 years," continued General Sinut>. "It is true that our highest hopes oi ten years ago have not been realised ; but neither have the dismal predictions of the critics of the League come true. On the whole it has followed a course of its own, and has quietly made good; and more recently its prospects have brightened in a very encouraging way. Germany, which was suspected and feared as a source of future danger to tho League, has quite unexpectedly become an active member and a source of real strength to the League, and of support to all the good causes for which it stands. The United States, which was supposed to bo indifferent, or even hostile, to the League, is going to join tho World Court. The Optional Clause is nt last becoming a realitv. and an immense extension will thereby bo given to tho iiidicial side of the League's activities. The Peace Pact, which the United States has sponsored, has been signed, and has gone far towards closing the gap left in ilie Covenant. The happy conversations between the President of the T T nited States and the British Prime Minister hftve given a new turn to the disarmament movement, and the forthcoming Naval Conference will open with every prospect of success. Last, not least, comes the great speech of President Hooved on Monday, which must have been read with the deepest pleasure by every supporter of the League. There was a note of optimism in it and a ring of sincerity which are good auguries for the future. We especially welcome the forecast of the President that there is going to be not merely a patch-up of the naval question on a basis of parities and ratios, but 'a serious reduction in navies as a relief to the economic burdens of the peoples.' It is clear that at last business is meant with disarmament, and we look forward with the deepest interest to the success of this policy." (Cheers.)

, Peace with Justice. General Smuts maintained, so far as disarmament was concerned, that aerial disarmament was the most important matter. He went on to speak of the problem of justice. "Our ideal," he said, "is not merely peace, but peace with justice. There is no doubt that war has in the past sometimes served as a solvent for intolerable situations; it has sometimes destroyed the bulwarks of ancient wrong and opened the way to necessary reforms and readjustments. If war in future is to be rendered impossible, we must see to it that its function, in so far as it has been beneficent in the past, be discharged by some other means. Peace must be dynamic; it must keep the door open to reform and to freedom, and must not become an incubus on human progress. The springs of reform, of progress, and of freedom must not be frozen under a deadly peace. Peace must be the handmaiden of justice in the new world toward which mankind is marching. This position was clearlv foreseen by the framers of the Covenant, and Article 19 calls for means by which obsolete or intolerable situations can be abolished. The creation of such machinery, and its careful working under proper safeguards, will be one of the greatest and most difficult tasks of the League. The time is rapidly approaching when this task will have to be faced. Otherwise all our machinery of peace, our World Court, our arbitration tribunals, and other legal agencies will merely serve to entrench the status quo, and render the danger of future explosions all the greater." Both Great Britain and America, said General Smuts, must follow up the Peace Pact. "Do not leave its general declaration in the air," he said, "but carry it to its reasonable conclusion. If that is done, it may be found that important changes in international law will become necessary, which will render the position of the violator of the Peace Pact untenable, if not impossible. There will be no question of the application of force, but there will be consequential changes of the law of neutrality which will have the most far-reaching results, both for future peace and for the settlement of current controversies. The Peace Pact with its far-reaching implications not only affords an unrivalled opportunity for the strengthening of the peace position, it also offers a bridge between the divergent views on peace methods held on both sides of the Atlantic. This unique opportunity should therefore be exploited to the full."