HIBERNIAN CLUB

Evening Star, Issue 23029, 6 August 1938, Page 2

HIBERNIAN CLUB

DEBATE ON COLLECTIVE SECURITY A subject of considerable interest was debated in the Dunedin Hibernian Social and Debating Club Rooms on Monday evening last. ‘ That Collective Security is the Only Means of Preserving World Peace,’ was the title, the affirmative being taken ‘by Messrs G. D. O’Connell (leader) and R. A.' King, and the negative by Messrs S. E. 'Mea (leader) and E. Dolan. Mr P. Keigh, of Wellington, acted as judge. Mr O’Connell defined collective security as the co-operation of the major Powers .for the purpose of preventing war. He admitted the failure of. -the League of Nations, but suggested ’that it had never been a really collective body. The arbitrary realignment -of boundaries in Europe after the Gfeat War had rendered the League’s failure inevitable. The present world .situation demanded co-Operation between the nations. Any. Other course would bring chaos. Mr Mee declared that the failure of the League of Nations was a classic example of the futility of attempted collective security. ; Was there, he asked, any greater sense of security in 1938 than in 1919, .in spite of the 19 years of so-called collective security? He said that each nation should arm to defend itself, and that individual security was the only safeguard against aggression.

Mr King said that the methods advocated by the negative were the methods or the past. Rearmament and Self-sufficiency had been tried for 'centuries, but they had never brought peace to the world. Collective security could not be said to have failed, because it had hot been really tried. Sincerity and punishment for transgressors were essential to collective security.

. Mr Dolan, after traversing the many injustices which he said were the result of the Treaty of Versailles, said that rearmament was the one why of keeping peace. Abyssinia had depended on its membership of the League from Italy’s aggression, and with what result When pacts were made to be broken, individual security was essential.

After the leaders had replied, the subject was thrown open to the audience for discussion. The judge, after summarising the speeches, gave several Useful hints for the speakers’ future guidance. He declared the negative side the'Vinner by a small margin.