WORLD PEACE

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 109, 10 May 1935, Page 9

WORLD PEACE

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS

CAN NEW ZEALAND HELP?

"Can New Zealand help the League?" was the subject of an address delivered last evening at the annual meeting of the Wellington branch of the League of Nations Union by Professor F. W. Wood, Professor of J3istory, Victoria University College. Professor Wood commenced his address by referring to the statement reported to have beeiv recently made by the Prime Minister of New Zealand, the Right Hon. G. W. Forbes, when passing through Canada, that if Britain was at war New Zealand was automatically at war, and that New Zealand did not wish consultation with Britain in regard to foreign policy. The speaker said he was not quite certain that Mr. Forbes expressed himself exactly in that way. New Zealand, he remarked, was a small country with a population of a million and a half, far removed from countries where great things happened, but wireless and aviation had brought about great changes. Oh the other hand the people here were not in many ways in close touch with what was being done in other countries. "Are we to give up trying," he asked, "to do our part in world affairs?" Although there were many difficulties in the way, those difficulties were not impossibilities. It wai their duty to speak emphatically if they had something intelligent to say. Reference was made to the example set by General Smuts, of South Africa,' in that respect. They should devote more study to world affairs, and get a knowledge of the facts. There were subjects which could be studied as effectively here as in almost any other part of the world. FREE FROM ANIMOSITIES. Professor Wood pointed out that New Zealand was a young country, and free from many of the animosities which existed in the Old World. He referred to the feeling which existed in some quarters in regard to the attitude of. Japan to less densely peopled countries in this part of the world. He thought that was one of the questions that might very profitably be studied by the League of Nations Union. Japan was separated from Australia and New Zealand by thousands of .miles of sea, and on the outbreak of the Great War Japan assisted in escorting ships carrying New Zealand troops to fight the enemy. That fact should be remembered by all those who were disposed to think harshly of Japan. The Japanese were not a colonising people, as was shown in the difficulty experienced in getting Japanese to migrate to Manchuria. The best suggestion- yet made, and the hope for the future, he said, was to instruct the young people of this country in world affairs. H another war broke out, the burden would fall on the young people of todays—those who • were twenty years of age ■ and even younger. Reference was made to successful youth movements in many countries. His impression was that among the young people there was a healthy determination to plan their lives in a more rational way than their fathers and grandfathers had done. It was his conviction that there was in the world a big enough force of idealism to right a host of wrongs if that idealism could be applied in the right way. He thought that in New Zealand there was an opportunity to do good work along those lines. ' "PUT OUR'HOUSE'.IN ORDER." ■ "In a nutshell," concluded Professor Wood, "this is what I think New.Zealand can do.for the League: she can put her own house in order. . That is the ■ first task of the people in the countries of the world today." On the motion of the Rev. F. H. Wilkinson a vote of thanks was passed to Professor Wood for his address. Mr. Wilkinson remarked that it was to some extent owing to the efforts of the Wellington League of Nations Union that New Zealand would be fully represented at the conference of the League of Nations at Geneva this year.