LITTLE EXPECTED FROM LEAGUE

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 69, 14 December 1939, Page 9

LITTLE EXPECTED FROM LEAGUE

Adverse Conditions NAZI CONNIVANCE IN RUSSIAN CRIME (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, December 12. British newspapers, sqmmenting on the proceedings at Geneva, while unanimously agreeing that Finland’s case is exactly one with which the League exists to deal, say that it must also be admitted that the conditions of the time could hardly be less favourable for the effective exercise of the League’s authority. The “Daily Telegraph” says: “Britain and France find themselves in full agreement on the lines to be pursued, and it is not surprising that agreement extends as far as the wish that this meeting of the League should finish quickly, as it cannot be effectual.” The present conditions can hardls’ be less favourable for effective exercise of the League’s authority, stales the “Daily Telegraph.” It points out that the root of the trouble is not in Moscow but in Berlin. “Sever that root and the offshoots will wither,” it says. The Allies would be wise not io allow any resolutions the League may pass to deflect them from their main purpose. Recalling with approval the emphatic terms in which M. Blum (the .French Socialist leader) has pointed out that for the outrage against Finland Germany’s guilt is at least as great as that of Russia, the newspaper says: “It was Herr Hitler who contrived Stalin’s crime against the liberty and independence of a small and unoffending neighbour, and it is by Herr Hitler’s consent and connivance that he pursues bis fell purpose. “It may be hard saying, but it is true that in the present pass the situation will not be saved by moral indignation. The martyrdom of Finland is a grievous spectacle enough, but what is now at stake is something even more hardly to be borne —the very, martyrdom of man." The “News Chronicle” points out that Great Britain and France are the only great Powers at Geneva. Referring to possible sanctions and the position of smaller nations, it says that in any case many of the smaller States are concerned with maintaining their neutrality. JAPANESE MANDATES No Report For Last Year GENEVA, December 12. The ehairman of the Mandates Committee announced that Japan had not sent a report for 1938 on the territories under her mandate.