PEACE BUREAU

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 285, 29 August 1935, Page 8

PEACE BUREAU

Government Organisation Urged

LEAGUE UNION’S MOVE

The setting up of a peace bureau under the direction of the Minister of External Affairs is urged on the Government in a remit from the Auckland branch introduced at the annual conference of the New Zealand League of Nations Union in Wellington yesterday. "When an Act of Parliament is passed which embodies an entirely new idea, especially if it is a revenue-pro-ducing one, such as the sales tax, the Government floods the country with literature telling the people all about it,” the Auckland branch commented. “But when New Zealand joined the League of Nations, and we assumed its oliligations, the Government pushed those obligations into a pigeon-hole and straightway forgot all about them. The consequence is that the majority of the people know little or nothing about the League. If the subject does crop up they are unable to distinguish between fact and fallacy; they criticise the League as though it were something outside and apart from themselves, forgetting, or not knowing that they, and similar people in other lands, are the League of Nations.

“A Peace Burean is necessary (1) to provide a Government centre from which information may be supplied to the people; (2) to promote a policy for public education on international cooperation; (3) to deal with all communications relating to the League. Under present conditions, peace deputations are dealt with by the Minister of Defence.” The Christchurch branch submitted the following remit “That the Dominion council of the League of Nations Union request the Government to establish a national committee for intellectual co-opera-tion as recommended by the League of Nations Committee.” The remits were held over for further consideration to-day.