LEAGUE OR CHAOS

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 142, 13 December 1933, Page 9

LEAGUE OR CHAOS

WORLD MUST CHOOSE

MAIN CAUSE OF CRISIS

PROBLEM OF DISARMAMENT)

M. AVENOL'S DEFENCE

(British Official Wireless.) ' (Received December 13, 11 a.m.); , RUGBY, December 12. ' Monsieur Avenol, SecretaryGeneral of the League of Nations, addressed members of all political parties in the House of Commons Committee Room yesterday.afternoon with Sir Austen Chamberlain in the chair. Monsieur Avenol, who made a vigorous reply to critics of tlia League, said that the alternative before the world was-not a choice between the League and some better system, but between the League and almost complete chaos. ' The chief cause of the crisis in League affairs was the problem of disarmament, which was purely a. European matter. It was to be re« gretted that responsibility for. the failure of the great' Powers to reach an understanding on ' this question should be laid at the door of the League. While the work and methods of the League must not becoma stereotyped, any changes must be made from inside. He said that the general structure of the Covenant represented the minimum obligations without which no effective international co-operation could exist, and .the League was the only practical measure taken by the human race to establish the rule of law in the relationships of countries. . The Secretary-General today called, at the Foreign Office, and had a long conversation with Sir John Simon.