NON-PARTY

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 11, 12 July 1930, Page 8

NON-PARTY

LEAGUE OF NATIONS UNION

COMPULSORY MILITAR;

TRAINING

(To the Editor.)

Shy—The letter appearing in Thursday'^ issue of "The Evening Post" under thesignature of "C. E. Archibald" must have been read with approval by a great number of, people who are associated with op in sympathy with the main objects of theLeague of Nations Union, but who deplore the fact that some of the leading members of the union have chosen to' array themselves in the name of the union with, causes which are not only controversial but of which the union has no call to take cognisance. The most vocal section of a movement is not, however, necessarily themost truly representative of the body of the members. , A few days ago a deputation to the Minister, ostensibly representing the League of Nations Union, urged the abolition o£ compulsory military training. This action was, no doubt, taken1 in furtherance of a, resolution of the conference of the union held recently at Timaru; but in view of the odiam which has been heaped on the movement because of that resolution, X think it is well that the public should be made aware of the precise measure of authority lay behind the claim of the de-r putation to represent the union. As a matter of fact, the four leading branches of the union, from the point of view of numbers and activity, representing substantially one half of the members in New Zealand, withheld 'their approval of the resolution or notified that if their delegates voted on the matter they represented no one but their own individual selves.; When one adds to this, the additional facts that owing to the inconvenience of Timaru as the venue for a conference some of the branches were not represented, and, that the voting was swelled by the addition of members of the Timaru branch added to the conference merely because they happened to be present at the meetings, the claim of the deputation to be representative of the union on this controversial subject is ill-sustained, although needless to say this aspect was not stressed by the deputation. These facts, too, probably explain the omission of the usual courtesy of inviting the local executive to support the deputation. One hesitates to write in such terms a 9 these, but the other side has a right to be heard when a non-party organisation with such potential powers for good as the League of Nations Union is through no fault of its own pushed into the melee of party politics, and used for the advancement of irrelevant causes which the idiosyncrasies of valuable though headstrong leaders may chance to favour. I am confident that the majority of the members of the League of Nations Union, even where substantially in agreement with the views of the deputation, believe with your correspondent that education must be the one and sufficient platform o£ the union if it is to fulfil any useful purpose. The Labour Party in England, faced with facts and sobered by/the responsibilities of office, realises perforce that one nation cannot of a sudden disarm, and that the only practicable alternative, progressive disarmament, can come when, and only when, people are sufficiently educated to see where their true interests lie. If the League of Nations Union, in conjunction. with similar unions all over the civilised world, abdicates its educative work and divides on matters of party politics, what body is to perform that function? It is the old problem of the salt that has lost its savour. ' This year the Wellington branch of th« union is endeavouring to carry out an active educational campaign, and in that it seeks the co-operation of the large number of citizens who believe that peace rather than war in the life of nations as well as in the life of civil communities may with effort become progressively the norm. At the last meeting of the Assembly at Geneva, M. Briand, Prime Minister of France, made an eloquent bid for public opinion in support of the League and • fine endorsement of the value of education: "When children," he said, "are taught to love peace, to respect other nations, and to look for what unites men rather than what1 separates them, we shall no longer need to measure our security or to set the machinery of the Covenant in motion, for pence will be already enthroned among the nations." The value of public opinion behind the activities of the League has been repeatedly stressed by such men _as Viscount Cecil and Mr. Arthur Henderson, and although we can never number members of the union by the hundreds of thousands as is the case in England, we may at least make our proportionate contribution to world opinion in support of the League and its works. Whatever may be the personal views of the members of the Dominion executive, the view I ha\Te outlined above is the only view that has received the endorsement of the Wellington branch, and if it has the support of citizens in its work our work can never become sectional in its outlook, but will inevitably become representative of the best elements in our midst jvhen directed towards the objects for which the union stands.—l am, etc.,

W. J. M'ELDOWNEY, President, League of Nations Union, (WUinston Branch).