LEAGUE OF NATIONS UNION

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 35, 10 August 1934, Page 8

LEAGUE OF NATIONS UNION

(To the Editor.?

Sir, —Beading in ■ last Saturday's "Evening Post" your loading article "The Moral of August," a somewhat ambiguous phrase catches the eye, viz.: "Yet we are asked in this country to beliove that the Leaguo of Nations and thei Leaguo of Nations Union are pacifist organisations." Tho query naturally arises what person or persons have asked tho "Evening Post" to believe in this country that tho League of Nations or the Leaguo of Nations Union is a pacifist, organisation? The New Zealand League of Nations Union is affiliated to the British League of Nations Union and is constantly in touch with the parent body. ;

At a meeting of the League of Nations Union held last week under the auspices of the Wellington Branch, the deputy chairman of tho Dominion Council said, inter alia:—"The first objection to the League is a bitter suspicion of the League and especially of the League of Nations Union as if they were both passivist causes that would force on Britain alone an absolute disarmament in the face of a world of enemies. That suspicion is utterly un-. justified. The League, does not stand for unilateral disarmament, nor - does the union. What they, do stand for is that tho nations of the world should fulfil tho pledges they have already given in covenanted and signed agreement that they will forthwith take steps to disarm. And if we were not hoodwinked by warmongers and obsessed by fears and ensnared by traditional viewpoints, we would surely recognise that there is no policy that is sano and safe and practicable save that of mutual disarmament which will remove the grounds for fear of aggression on the one hand and temptation to aggression on the other hand. In the world today the 'cranks' are those who are so one-eyed that they can see only their own nation and think ,only in terms of their own nation's defence." .

Tha above statement expresses the view generally held among members of the union throughout New Zealand and serves to show that our standpoint, is that of the British League of Nations Union.—l am, etc., :

M. E. P. AHERN. Secretary, Dominion Council, L.N.IT.

[We refer in today's leading columns to the above subject.—Ed.]