HOW TO SECURE PEACE

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 105, 31 October 1933, Page 7

HOW TO SECURE PEACE

EMPIBE CONFERENCES

REVIEW BY HON. W. D. STEWART

BANFF LARGELY NEGATIVE

(By Telegraph.—Press Association;) AUCKLAND, October 30. • Addressing the Auckland branch of the Institute'of Pacific Eelations, the Hon. W. Downie Stewart said that the I two Canadian conferences involved no responsibility on the part of any country or Government. They were largely informative and educational. The difficulty was that, after such an exchange of views and information, it was hard for the few people forming a .national delegation to impart the point of view of other nations to tKe ; whole body of their fellow countrymen' when they re« turned home. : ''■■'. The Conference on Empire Belations at Toronto had emerged from the earlier.conference of the Institute of Pacific Kelations at Kyoto. Both at Toronto: and at Banff, at the heart of all the many problems discussed had been how to secure peace. At Banff the principal subject had v been economic complications, in the Pacific, and at' Toronto everything had led up 'to the question of how the various parti of the Empire would co-operate and consult in order to form a common policy expressed directly or through the League of Nations towards the rest ,61! the world, in order to promote and maintain peace. : • ■;: . ' ERRONEOUS IMPRESSIONS. "I wish to correct an erroneous im« pression created by a condensed cable report of some -remarks I made ia Canada,", he said. "It was made to appear that I had,spoken disparagingly of the League of Nations, and the president of the Auckland branch of the League of Nations Union has writtea criticising my alleged statement. Nothing was further from my thoughts than to disparage the League. What-1 did say was that at Toronto some delegates were inclined to treat the conference as if'it were entirely a League of Nations 1 Conference, and not primarily a conference of the members of the British Commonwealth. In fact, they spoke as if the British Commonwealth had merged its existence with the League. "I said it was true that the British' Commonwealth has the same objective of world peace, and must work through the League, but that the primary duty of the conference was to discuss means for securing co-operation and consolidation of a common Empire policy in tha first place, and to. recognise that the League was not yet so strongly established that we could dispense with the tower of strength of the British Empire. Since then Germany has withdrawn from the League, and there are now four great Powers outside the League—Japan, Bussia, America, and Germany. Under these circumstances we have to be cautious, and, while giving all support to the League, still maintain the Commonwealth in case the League should fail. SCAREMONGERING SUGGESTION. "Anothef cable message suggested that I had been, scaremongering at Banff as to the danger of war in tha Pacific. Cablegrams , are necessarily brief . and i ;.usually state conclusions without giving the; train.of thought that leads lip :.to, them.' :,;What I pointed !out was that while minds were concentrated tin the peril of war in Europe, it might be a fact, that; fair more effective,causes ioi war were,'.operating in the Pacific. ' In' Europe conflicts seemed to. us'to be based largely on old feuds and rivalries, with no economic complications as in the East., Among these complications were congestion" of population, lack of opportunity ifor migration, .upon-which' the conference was unanimously agreed, lack of. opportunity for full industrialisation, and tha uselessness of birth control' as a remedy; seeing that the surplus millions were already there. J> '■' The results of the Banff Conference had been largely negative, said Mr. Stewart. The statements of'fact, had been clear and impartial, but there had been neither time nor opportunity to evolve a solution. This the conference had passed on to the statesmen and diplomatists of the world. EMPIRE DISCUSSIONS. At Toronto emphasis had been laid upon seeing that co-operation and consultations between various parts of tha Empire should be in accordance with the policy of the League of Nations and towards peace. The discussions revealed a clear demarkation between the ideas of different Empire countries regarding their relationship to the Commonwealth. These differences were,_ia, the main, geographical. Canada, which, was virtually imfiiune from attack, with, the North Pole on one-side and a great, • powerful, and friendly nation on tha other, felt the necessity for defence, especially naval defence and co-opera-tion, to be remote and unreal. Indeed, the feeling on this subject in the various countries might be -represented bj colouring a map.in a gradation of tones corresponding to ;• their, vulnerability to attack. New' Zealand felt herself to be in an extremely dangeroms and vulnerable position, and attached great importance; to her' British connection and to the Navy. ■■ •*-■/; v;' ' ■ ;: T ;: