The Evening Star THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 1921. League of Nations Union.

Evening Star, Issue 17731, 4 August 1921, Page 4

The Evening Star THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 1921.

League of Nations Union.

It » a good thing, -we believe, that at the meeting last

night, at which a most eloquent ad-

dress was given by'.Professor Pringle, a branch of the League of Nations Union was formed for Dunedin pledged to the assistance of this great ideal. The branch has been establised on" a most representative basis. At the largely attended meeting which gave bijtb to . it practically no dissent was expressed from the course acfopted. The enthusiasm of the gathering —not a gathering of ’cranks, but including all the best elements of this community—on the cohtrary, was pronounced. The new body ■ forma the first general branch of tho League of Nations Union that has yet been promoted in New Zealand, but no perilous degree of innovation can he held to be involved in its establishment. Branches have been formed in- the other Dominions of the Empire; our belief is that there cannot be too many of them. Dunedin has set an example to the other pities of New and it is p'ecu-

liarly appropriate that tho now departure should have been made on tho eve of thl anniversary of tho British Empire’s entrance into a war which it did not desire, and which the first wish of everyone brought into association with tho disastrous conflict—and •who was not?—should be never to seo repeated. The League of Nations may not succeed in ending wav. It is, however, tho greatest attempt which the world has been able to make yet with the object of making wars less frequent, and that attempt deserves and requires all tho support that can be given to it- “ The support of world public opinion,” Lord Robert Cecil has said, ‘‘is the League’s greatest need.” It might be thought that there is very little which unions of those who- arc not statesmen, and play only humble parts in the vast workings of tho universe, cnu> do to help such a great, design as tho League of Nations, but they can do a great deal. They can help to form the atmosphere of the age by which statesmen are insensibly and constantly governed, oven They think that their acts and inspirations-arc most their own. The men, like Lord Robert Cecil, who are working most; against all sorts of obstacles, to malm this groat new plan for averting wars successful' need all tho help that can bo given them by tho world’s public opinion, and those who are. working fox* it with less conviction must bo raado to feel at all times what the people desire, that their efforts may not slacken through want of faith. War is not a necessity, unless the folly of man is resolved to make it so. Tho world is large enough for all tho nations that inhabit it, without need that they should seek to progress by the slaughtering of each other. Tho lesson of the greatest wav has been that no progress, only destruction, miserj*, and impoverishment, are to be had that way. The world should be learning sense enough to find other means of settling its disputes, instead of so injuring itself. The League of Nations is a great experiment, indubitably in the right direction, which has yet to, bo made successful. Its well-wishers will commit the most dangerous folly if they act as though its success were already assured, when it is still only an experiment. Short of that over-zeal, too much cannot bo done to help it.