DEFECTS OF THE LEAGUE

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21805, 10 June 1936, Page 3

DEFECTS OF THE LEAGUE

ADDRESS BY REV. H. E. BELLHOUSE

REASONS GIVEN FOR RECENT FAILURE “If other nations can only arouse public opinion in active support of the League of Nations, as Great Britain has done, then the future of the league need cause no misgivings, said the Rev. H. E. Bellhouse, in an address at the Somerfield Methodist Churcjj. , Mr Bellhouse said that in the light of what had happened in the last 12 months anyone who spoke of the League of Nations had to stand more or less as an apologist for its deficiencies. Various accusations were being made against the league, and unfortunately there were grounds for at least some of them. Although its humanitarian work, in the control of the drug traffic, the suppression of slavery, and prevention of malignant diseases, was of the highest order and merited great admiration, the league, in Popular estimation, must ? tand its success or failure in promoting international peace, msofarasit ha failed in this respect, he feared it must stand condemned before the bar of humanity. A Tremendous Achievement

“Nevertheless,” added Mr Bellhouse, “I feel that the league has done a great deal to avoid hostilities and to promote international security. The mere fact that for 16 years the league has existed at all. and that it has done what it has, is a tremendous achievement We must remember that the league is a vast experiment. From the time of Henry VI. there have been 26 previous attempts to form a league of nations and not one of them has succeeded; yet th§ present league has held 55 nations throughout the last lb vears in a great degree of.unity. After citing the success of the league in ensuring the peaceful conduct of the Saar Plebiscite in January, 1935, Mr Bellhouse said it was admitted that the league did not show to advantage in the trouble between Japan and China in 1933, or the recent war between Italy and Abyssinia. “The spectacle of Abyssinia to-day is a tragic one,” he said, “and Haile Selassie is indeed a pathetic and woeful figure. These things have been brought about in no slight degree by the failure of the league to assert itself as it should have done in the earlier days of the war between Italy and Abyssinia. For months beforehand the league knew what was coming, for Italy made no secret of her intentions. If it had only been able to bring to bear some effective check upon Italy, conditions might have been very much different to-day. Lack of Effective Unity “The reason the league has not been successful in intervening between these two nations has been the lack of what may be called effective unity on the part of its members. I believe that Great Britain has been very sincere in her espousal of the cause of Abyssinia, and has been prepared to do her utmost to avert hostilities. Unfortunately she has not had the consistent support of France, who played too much a see-saw game. The league needs to have more mandatory power than it possesses at present, in order that nations which are not amenable to moral suasion should be brought to book by some more powerful legal authority. “We must not forget, however, that the league is yet only in its infancy. Let us not judge this child of 16 years by the standards of a man of 60 If the league is. as it must undoubtedly be, reorganised, remodellea and reformed, I am confident that it will promote as never before, the progress of humanity and international peace.”