ENTERTAINED BY ROTARY

Evening Star, Issue 18852, 29 January 1925, Page 9

ENTERTAINED BY ROTARY

CAPTAIN PEARSE AND MR WILSON

Captain A. ,W. Pearse, F.R.G.S. (representative in Australia and New Zealand of the Port of London Authority), and Mr J. V. Wilson (assistant to Sir Eric Drummond, secretary-general to the League of Nations) were entertained in the Savoy Lounge at luncheon to-day hy the Dunedin Rotary (Tub. It- was a cheerful gathering. Choruses were sung with gusto. The hospitality extended to visitors and guests was of the real Rotarian order.

Rotarian Vice-president S. Solomon occupied tho chair at the start, later relinquishing it to Rotarian C. A. Wilson. Among tho guests were (Mr D. Larnach (president) and Mr W T . J. Bardsloy (secretary), of tho Otago Harbor Board. Captain Pearse and’ Mr W ilson were introduced. amidst hearty applause. Captain Pearse first of all referred to his connection with Aew Zealand. He remarked that he came to Lyttelton in 1877. There his ship was in quarantine for three weeks. Ho rati away, but wn.-. caught soon after, and was fined £5 by the captain. Ho was given the post of third mate, and stopped on the ship. In 1888 he was married in Dunedin, in Doan Fitchett’s Church.

It is worthy of mention, also, that Captain Pearse served for eighteen months as chief and second officer under Earl Jellicoe’s father (Captain Robert Jellicoe) in tho West- Indies Royal Mail Service.

Captain Pearse spoke on the advantages of London as a port. Ho described the constitution of the Port of London Authority. “If your goods are sold,” ho said hater, “ by all moans send them to tho nearest or most convenient port; bub if you want to sell your goods it- is a mistake to send them to anywhere else but London. Tourists go there from all over the world—men who want the host—and I am glad to say that there is no one to beat your butter, mutton, or lamb.” Captain Pearse spoke briefly on the many other advantages offered by the Port of London. Ho remarked that prices there for New Zealand mutton and lamb were higher than at any other place in tho world. Pie thanked them for their hospitality. “It is my twenty-fourth visitto New Zealand,” he said, “ and I am never happier than when I am here with you.” (Applause.) Mr Wilson spoke of the work of the League of Nations, on whose permanent, staff he is one of the two New Zealand members.

He described the League as “ our country and fifty-four other countries which had signed a treaty with the object of achieving certain practical ends—to promote. international co-operation and achieve international peace and security.” It had its general assembly of representatives of the different States, a smaller executive body known as the council, and the permanent staff, or secretariat. In promoting international cooperation tho activity was such that he could not deal with 'it, even in the most general terms. It entered into every field in which there was a chance for Governments to get together and do things for the common good. ° It was a new machinery for dealing with old problems. The old way of deab ing with international problems was -by diplomacy. That was too slow a, way of doing things. It took years before'Governments could even get a meeting. Under the League this machinery for arriving at agreements was almost perfected. Whereas diplomacy was almost entirely secret, tho League was public, and anyone interested could read what was being done. The League had solved a great many difficult questions. It had brought- about tho financial salvation of Austria arid the stopping of epidemics travelling from Eastern to Moslem Europe, A complete agreement had been arrived at in tho direction of overcoming tho vast variety of Customs formalities the world over. Now the suppression of opium and a whole host of humanitarian activities were before the League, It was infinitely better than anything that had been' tried previous to its formation.

Tho chief aim was to stop war. They began with the assumption that war was a thing to he avoided if human effort and human intelligence could bring that about. A dispute between any of the nations of tho League must now either bo referred to arbitration or to the League Council before other steps were taken. A - great number of those problems had been placed before the League, and it hud not failed to solve them. The, speaker spoke of somo of the disputes that had been settled. The nations, under the covenant, had promised to take action against any State violating the covenant, and there was provision for even a possibility of war directed against a State that did not carry out its agreement. Mr Wilson concluded his address amidst applause. Rotarian F. M. Sliortt proposed a hearty vote of thanks to the speakers, and the gathering closed with the National Anthem.