FUTURE OF LEAGUE OF NATIONS

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 109, 1 February 1940, Page 8

FUTURE OF LEAGUE OF NATIONS

Bishop Holland’s View,

GOING TO COME TO LIFE AGAIN

The effort to combine two principles, national sovereignty ami collective security, between which there was an incompatibility, had been revealed as an inherent difficulty in the League of Nations, said the Bishop of Wellington, Rt. Rev. IJ. St. Barbe Holland, in his speech when declaring open the Dominion conference of the League ot Nations Union 'of New Zealand at Frederic Wallis House, Lower Hutt, yesterday. After the war, he said, it seemed that the. nations would have to choose between the two.

Bishop Holland declared himself t.o bo still an unrepentant believer in the objectives and ideal. 4 of the League of Nations, and said he believed that in some form or other It was going t.o come to life again as the organized idea of life which was essential to the salvation of tlie world. Causes of Failure. “Tlie efforts being made at . the moment seem to be utterly futile,” he said, “but the beginning is a, realization that the thing has to happen. If the League is to become a live issue in the world after the war, we must all be fearless in examination of the causes of the failure of the League in those past years, and eager in the attempt to recreate the vision.

“I suppose the first thing we have to do is to cease to be fools and acknowledge that as a political force the League has completely failed to function as its creators hoped. Why? At present the cause of failure seems to be that the world has reverted to power politics', and the agony of the world as a result of that is unbelievable. I have been asking whether, when the League was apparently succeeding, its success was due to its having dethroned power politics. Was it not a fact that the League had been depending on power politics and using the weapons of power politics? Did it not really depend on the balance of power being in its favour?

“I am certain we have to admit that really the League was depending on a balance of power which would always incline the scales in favour of itself. I believe it is almost true to say that we never really have left the arena of power politics.” National Sovereignty. Bishop Holland said he thought the thing that had become quite manifest since the crash of the League was that it had endeavoured to combine two principles between which they had now learnt a definite choice must be made. These two principles were: First, national sovereignty; secondly, collective security. There was au incompatibility between tlie two. The result of trying to combine the two was that whenever a sharp issue arose ,every Governmeut in tlie League was trying to do two things. It was trying to swing the council or assembly into the policy which the sacred interest of its own country demanded, and each nation was always consulting the interest of its country when considering whether to use the powers to uphold the authority of the covenant. That inherent difficulty was to be tremendously regretted, but, could not be avoided till all peoples were determined in ail circumstances to uphold the the covenant as being the primary interest of that nation. Till every nation felt it was going to be in its own national interest to obey the behest. of the League they were never going to get collective security. “After the war it seems to me that we will have to choose between the two principles,” Bishop Holland continued. “If you demand collective security, national sovereignty has to go, because if the action against an aggressor is to be automatic that is au infringement of national sovereignty. But if there is no hope that national sovereignty will be abandoned by the States of the League, then I am certain that one great change will have to be the abolition of any mention of sanctions.” Spiritual Basis. Referring to proposals for Federal Uniou. Bishop Holland said a way of escape always was to find a new slogan and formula. “For God's sake.” he said, “do let us realize that when we have found a formula we haven't found a way to salvation. The question will involve the most appalling difficulties.” One thing that had been lacking was an admission that there must be a spiritual basis of some sort. Probably .President Wilton had felt that a .spiritual basis was needed. “You cannot create an organization like that, without, a great spiritual passion behind it,” he said. "Without Hint, efforts would be futile. I should say that the political progress of the world depends on its spiritual progress. Wo have made great progress. We have to preserve that standard and prevent, gangsters sending the world back to tlie standard to which they have fallen.”