AS OTHERS SEE US

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 249, 17 July 1937, Page 8

AS OTHERS SEE US

Sydney “Bulletin” Criticises Hon. W. Nash Commenting on the statements of New Zealand Ministers in England, the Sydney “Bulletin” of June 30. publishes the following editorial 1 “Judging by reports in friendly newspapers. the Maoriland Prime Minister made some very foolish remarks in London on foreign policy. One observation attributed to him was that Canada might choose to say it wouldn’t be dragged into any League war but Maoriland was not going to do anything that would mean killing the League. The truth is that, in everything that relates to collective insecurity, the League is dead already. It lies self-slain on its own strange altar. It cut its throat with sanctions, but it would have perished of its own selfish folly and dreaming pedantry in any event. “But it was reserved for Mr; Nash, Mr. Savage’s Minister of Finance, to give the prize exhibition of sorry fustian. Mr. Nash, who went to London in advance of the Coronation party to urge the claims of Maoriland butter j and mutton on ■ a distracted Europe, . which had not previously had the bene- ' fit of his advice, went along to a Lon- ■ don meeting of the League of Nations > Union with a ready-made recipe for j establishing peace with honour and, if ' possible, more M.L. mutton and butter. This was the recipe:—‘The League should force the withdrawal of foreign troops and put Spain under a League mandate for a year.’ “The League should force. It has no force —not even the shadow of an army, a navy or a flying corps. Yet it would need a first-class fleet in being, a subs'fintial army with ample reserves, clouds of machines with capable bombers and machine-gunners and the means of keeping them all munitioned, clothed, fed and paid, to put Spain under a League mandate for a year, especially if military Powers outside the League objected, as they very probably would. “The Spaniards would certainly object. Indeed, both factions might combine to resist what they would certainly regard as a monstrous foreign invasion and a felon blow to their pride and their self-governing rights, among which is the right to go to the devil in their own way.. A truce to faction fighting in the presence of a common danger would be nothing new in the history of Spain.

“And where would Mr, Nash get the men, machines and money for this League invasion? Maoriland could doubtless supply the mutton and the butter, but it could do little more. “This Minister is reported to be coming home. He has been away too long. Europe is doubtless in need of something to laugh at, but Maoriland should not have been dragged in to supply that sort of food.’’