PEACE BALLOT

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 286, 30 August 1935, Page 2

PEACE BALLOT

Overwhelming’ Success of

British Effort

“INCREDIBLE MAJORITY”

The question of holding a peace ballot in New Zealand was again discussed yesterday by the annual conference of the League of Nations Union of New Zealand, when it was decided to congratulate the British Union on the outstanding success of its recent ballot. The Dominion president, Rev, F. H. Wilkinson, said the ballot in Great Britain had been carried through in a very effective way, and at an expense of £12,000. The New Zealand Union would have the same area to cover and about one-fortieth of the population. New Zealand’s expenses would be probably a twentieth of Britain’s, so that they could say that such a plan would cost in the vicinity of £6OO. Mr. T. Todd (Gisborne), said that the union’s strength in New Zealand in proportion to the population was very much smaller than at Home. Auckland delegates intimated that they had been instructed to oppose the proposal on the ground of finance and impractibility. Mr. Wilkinson said the ballot had been .carried through so effectively at Home that they knew the strength of the peace movement. A similar ballot in New Zealand would lack the element of surprise and freshness it had had at Home. • First National Referendum. The following official statement on the British ballot was issued by the conference:— “It was a unique effort, the first referendum on a national scale in England. The original germ of the ballot was a questionnaire initiated in Ilford in January, 1934, by Mr. G. J. A. Boorman, editor of the Ilford ‘Recorder.’ By means of his newspaper and with the help of some 500 voluntary workers, he organised and carried through a local referendum on the League of Nations which was startlingly successful. At that time the world was moving toward' war—a demonstration of British loyalty to the League and the collective peace system was urgently needed.

“Lord Cecil, inspired by the success at Ilford, took the initiative. What can be done,’ be said, ‘in one district can be done in all,’ and on March 1 he put his proposal before the executive committee of thd League of Nations Union. It took courage to adopt it—failure would have been an irretrievable disaster. Some thought it might be wiser to confine it to 20 or 30 typical districts, but vision and cou’age won, and a cautious test vote in a few districts was discarded in favour of a bold attempt to take the ballot on a national scale. Three Parties Co-operate. “It was not a League of Nations Union ‘stunt.’ The union took its share, and a large one, but the scheme was laid before and adopted by a conference of delegates from representative national bodies, the three political parties, the churches, peace societies, women’s organisations, co-operative guilds, and so on, and it was carried out by similar local conferences. From the beginning it was felt that a good poll was of much greater importance than a high percentage of *yes’ answers, and in all the work the greatest care was taken to ensure accuracy and freedom from political bias. This was vital. “The Liberal and Labour headquarters gave their official support. The Conservative Party left it to their local organisations to decide, but in many districts the Conservative association and Conservative members of Parliament assisted the campaign. Not quite every constituency was covered, nor every district in those that were, but in spite of that 37.9 per cent, of the total population of the country above the age of IS filled in - a ballot paper. To prevent duplicate voting was difficult, but every care was taken, e.g., no ballot papers were delivered in offices —they were delivered only at the residences. This entailed a tremendous amount of work. More than half-a-million volunteers took part in this, and as Lord Cecil wrote: ‘This is far stronger evidence of the depth of feeling for peace in this country even than the number of voters.’ Cost of the Effort. i “Who paid for all this? A general election costs the various party headquarters approximately £500,000. The peace ballot headquarters, also working on a nation-wide scale, cost £12,000. gathered by public subscription. “What are the results? 11,559,165 people filled in and signed a ballot paper, though when.the ballot was first proposed a vote of four to five millions would have been considered success.

Question 1: Should Great Britain remain a member of the League of Nations?—Yes, 11.090,387u0. 355,853. Question 2: Are yon in favour of an all-round reduction of armaments by international agreement?—Yes, 10,470,489: no. 562.775.

Question 3: Are you jn favour of the all-round abolition of national military and naval aircraft by international agreement?—Yes. 9.533,558: no. 1,689,786.

Question 4: Should the manufacture and sale of armaments for private profit be prohibited by international agreement?—Yes, 10.417,329; no, 775,415.

Question 5: Do you consider that, if a nation insists on attacking another the other nations should combine to compel it to stop by (a) economic and non-military measures? —Yes. 10,027,608; no, 635,074. (b) If necessary, military measures?—Yes. 6,784.368; uo, 2,351.981. Never a Vote so Overwhelming. “Compare these figures with the highest vote ever secured by any political party in any general election—the. 5.65G.473 obtained by the Conservative Parly in 1929. Even if the necessary addition of 9 per cent, is made, to cover those between 18 ami 21, this record vote only equals 9.485,566, which is beaten by all but oue of the ‘yes’ answers in the ballot. “For the first time in history, British people have bad the opportunity of making themselves beard on a first-class Issue other than, and above party politics, and free from the heated atmosphere of rivalries of a general election. Never has there been a vote so overwhelming. “There are still some people who say: ‘I don’t believe in the League of Nations,’ and who- scornfully refuse to read or to listen to anything about the League, but in England they are evidently in a very small minority After making every deduction possible, to make sure of accuracy, the final figures are that 37.9 per cent, of the adult population of Britain have voted and 95.94 per cent, of that total are in favour of the League. It is an Incred- j ible majority,"