LEAGUE OF NATIONS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 113, 16 May 1925, Page 7

LEAGUE OF NATIONS

REAL AND BENEFICENT SUCCESS MR. A. CHAMBERLAIN'S TRIBUTE ' CONCILIATORY ATMOSPHERE. (HIOSI OUR OWX CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, 7th April. Mr.'Austen Chamberlain and Lord Grey of Falloden attended a reception given by the Marchioness of Salisbury, and both spoke on the work of the League of Nations.

There was a whole field of work, said Mr. Chamberlain, in which the League had achieved a real and beneficent success—a field of philanthropy and relief which had cleared plague, alleviated distress, and brought relief to many thousands of people who certainly otherwise would have suffered much great hardships and might, indeed, have succumbed. Apart from that it had entered at everyone of its council meetings on a work of mediation and conciliation for which there was, unfortunately, only too much need in this troubled world of ours.

Speaking of the < secrecy which was sometimes preserved by. the League Council, Mr. Chamberlain said there were cases where, if they were forced to conduct all their proceedings in public, public discussion instead of composing differences might embitter them, and the chances of reconciling conflicting objects and conflicting nations might be dislocated in the storms of oratory which wore directed less to the jury—with whom iic might compare tho Council— than to the constituents of the respective parties to whom their representatives were shouting from Geneva across Europe and the world. LEAGUE ATMOSPHERE. -"I havo come back from the two Council meetings that I have attended," said Mr. Chamberlain, "understanding what is meant by thoso who speak of the League atmosphere. There is among members of the Council, and among those who meet at the Council or Assembly meetings, a real desire for harmony and conciliation, a real intention to understand the point of view, of the other party, and to arrive at an agreement if that be possible. And, being what I am, an .Englishman, I am not discouraged because things have small beginnings, and, indeed, taught by all the history of our country that it is by a slow and gradual growth that the greatest and the most asiured strength is won. I am led to great confidence in the future of the League, in tha growth of its strength and authority, provided that it is not too severely tested in its early days, and that it walks with caution and with prudence until it has acquired the authority that will enable it to act with greater completeness and more decision. PROCEED GRADUALLY. "We have proceeded in our history by an almost insensiblo growth, so that often as tho changes were taking place the contemporary generation has not known how great was ths work which it was doing, and it has been left for their successors suddenly to awake to the fact that within a, space of years, .which is short in the lifetime of ■ a nation, great changes havo been made, and K'reat progress has beuu marked. So I believe it will lie with the League if it is prudently and wisely conducted. Do not put too great a strain upon it if it can be avoided in its early years. Do not expect the impossible. Let us do our best to use the strength which it has, wisely and prudently. Let us do our best to secure the confidence of other nations now outside the League in the working itnd the wisdom of its machinery, and let us do our best to get them in time to accept, membership of the League. So the League will proceed gradually from strength to strength until 'it. speaks with an increasing weight of authority behind it, until it becomes far more difficult for any one nation to defy the concentrated opinion of the world as expressed through the recognition of the importance of the League. That is the future that I see for°the League. It is in that faith that I uphold it. and 1 think that the work which it has already done and the successes which it has already achieved give good ground for our confidence in its future." AGREEMENT ON EQUAL TERMS. Lord Grey said whatever start they made to secure peace in Europe, whether they called it Protocol, whether they called it Covenant, or whether . they called it Pact, should be inside the League of Nations, in accordance with the League of Nations, registered in it, and 'bringing it into harmony with the machinery of the League of Nations. The next condition should be this, that it should ba something to which we should be a party, and to which France and Germany would both be parties on equal terms, and in which they couid each find a souse of security. "If I understand Mr. Chamberlain's speech aright, he thinks there is now an opportunity of moving and on these lines. I believe these ure tho right lines and.. IE so, the opportunity should not bo missed. My. Chamberlain, in his speech in the House of Commons on his return from Geneva, said he was convinced that the German Government was making its proposals in good faith. Yes, to-day that may be, for Germany is help, less and disarmed, but if the opportunity passes Germany may be. with hfr power of organisation, potentially tho strongest Continental country in Europe You cannot get a start if you are coin"' to leave her out. If you "can get Gei" many m with France on equal terms then you are getting a start which will em in .something comprehensive—you will begin m the richt direction " *