Expenditure on the League.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20550, 19 May 1932, Page 8

Expenditure on the League.

The Commonwealth Attorney-General, whose plea for economies in the expenditure of the League oi' Xations Secretariat was reported in yesterday's cable news, is justified if he has any

| reason to believe that the Secretariat js being run extravagantly. It goes without saying that in view of the state of all members' financeSj the League's budget should be reduced as far as possible without seriously impairing the efficiency of the Secretariat. But it is not possible to argue that the sum spent on the League is unreasonably large, or that it is a perceptible burden on the finances of the member. States. It is true that the abandoning of the gold standard has increased the contribution in sterling of most countries in the Empire by about a half; yet although Great Britain's is now £182,000 instead of £117,000, it is still less than the annual charge foxstationery for the Navy, and represents a charge of a little over a penny per head of population. It would, at a modest estimate, cost Great Britain thirty-eight times as much to build a new battleship as she is now spending each year on the development of new means of keeping the peace among nations and of making possible a reduction of the colossal international expenditure on armaments. It may be possible to doubt whether the attempt will succeed;. but to doubt whether it is worth while is to doubt whether civilisation is worth saving.