POST-WAR WORLD

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 25, 29 July 1942, Page 4

POST-WAR WORLD

THE ATLANTIC CHARTER

SIGNIFICANT PLEDGES

"New Zealanders have reason to be proud of the place that was taken by their Government and by their representative, Mr. Jordan, during the. last few years of the League of Nations. In fact,! the position which your Government took was a model for all other Governments, and I believe that if all other Governments had taken

the same position, much might have been accomplished," said Dr. W. A. Riddell, High Commissioner for Canada, in an address to the Wellington branch of the League of Nations Union yesterday afternoon on "Future World Order."

The United Nations, said Dr. Riddell, had been chary of committing themselves as to what they were, going to do about using the machinery of the League of Nations after victory had been won: The Atlantic Charter, which had now been signed by twenty-eight nations, and the recent Anglq-Soyiet treaty, did afford some. enqoyragenient that there would be international machinery, '■ but no v definite1 proposal was made in the Atlantic Charter, as had been made by Presidentl Wilson in his Fourteenth Point, when he spoke of a society of • nations; which was to be established to .guarantee, the1 political independence arid territorial integrity of nations, but there did seem to be ground for belief that some form of useful, organisation was . contemplated. The last point of the Charter referred to the establishment of "a wider and- more permanent" system of general security. , It was difficult, the speaker remarked, for many people to contemplate any permanent general security after the war which would not be based upon''some form of collective organisation, i ' " ,

RECENT STATEMENTS

Dr. Riddell said that Mr. Eden's recent statement in .the House of Commons might also be taken to indicate that the • parties to the Anglo-Soviet treaty thought there might be a possibility of such an organisation after i the war. On the other hand, it might also be inferred, that a definite. period had been fixed for the currency of the treaty after .the war because of doubts^ slight perhaps, but doubts, that such a system of international ■ security would be set up.- A recent statement by Mr. Cordell Hull was much more reassuring, although he spoke as the representative of one Government, regarding ah international organisation. He was reported.to have said, that after the war a great constructive task would lie before all nations, and would include the building of human freedom and Christian: morality on , a firmer and broader • foundation than ever before. This would call for both national' and international action. , It was plain that some international agency , must be, created, to ensure peace.; Mr. Hull also thought there must be an.international court andean adjustment of . international, armaments. That, said Dr. Riddell, was a most- important recognition of the two essential organs of the collective system. ' ' ' ' •

Comparing the provisions of the Atlantic Charter with" the Articles of the League .Covenant, Dr. .Riddell stressed the importance of the pledge in the' Charter to economic collaboration for improved labour standards, and to mutual advancement and social security for all, and also the point concerning access •to trade and- raw materials for all on equal terms. Those points were of great significance for the peace of the world, and were nothing, less than an. announcement of a "good-neighbour" policy, for the world. ■ .

"If at the, end of the war there is the will among the people, I believe a way willbe found to bring about a better world," said Dr. Riddell, "but we must: never forget that the world order> we have been contemplating is but a dream until we have won the war." ■