THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23080, 24 July 1940, Page 10

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS

CONTRIBUTIONS BY

NEW ZEALAND

FURTHER PARTICIPATION

OPPOSED

[From Our Parliamentary Reporter.]

WELLINGTON, July 23. Strong objection to New Zealand making any further participation in the affairs of the League of Nations was made by Mr F. W. Doidge (Opposition, Tauranga), when the Estimates were being discussed in the House of Representatives to-day. The members of the League, he said, had failed to stand up' against aggression. Discussing the provision of £250 for the expenses of New Zealand’s delegate to Geneva, Mr Doidge asked how a representative was to reach Geneva. The Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser); That amount is an overlap from last year. “There is a suggestion that the home of the League of Nations should be transferred to the United States,” said Mr Doidge. “If that is done, I hope that the Government .will not consider the expenditure of any sum in the light, of the recent history of the League. Where to-day are the 52 countries, members of the League of Nations, which pledged their sacred word to stand, against any aggression which challenged the peace of the world? Where are those 52 nations to-day, when Britain alone stands as the last bulwark of civilisation and Christianity? I hope that this will be the last time we will see on the Estimates of this country a vote for the League of Nations.”

The Prime Minister said that problems were likely to arise after the war.

“There are problems which will confront us at the end of this war, and I suggest that we should set up a Ministry of Rehabilitation,” replied Mr Doidge. The Leader of the Opposition (the Hon. A. Hamilton), referring to the vote of £11,728, New Zealand’s proportion of the League of Nations Secretariat expenses for the year ended December 31 last, commented that this was not a great deal less than for the previous year. He inquired whether the same staff was now engaged at Geneva. . ~ _ The Prime Minister said the Government’s knowledge about the Secretariat was very indefinite. Nobody had been thinking about it in recent times. He could not say whether the Secretariat was being dispersed or not. It was probably being cdrtailed very much indeed.