NEW ZEALAND’S VIEWS ON PEACE MAKING

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 August 1946, Page 7

NEW ZEALAND’S VIEWS ON PEACE MAKING

Delegate and Paris Conference

Territorial Annexations Opposed

(Rec. 10.30 a.m.) PARIS, Aug. 1. A warning against punishing aggressor nations by territorial annexations was given by Mr. H. G. R. Mason (New Zealand),' speaking at the plenary session of the Peace Conference.

“We must not yield to the temptation to reward this nation or punish that by giving or taking territory easily marked on a map,” he said. “We are dealing with living men and women, their homes and families, their lives and hopes. Human beings are not fit subjects to serve as prizes and rewards.

Spirit of Revenge.

“The New Zealand delegation endorses the earlier statements that the positive task of peacemaking is the. creation of goodwill and good neighbourliness and the avoidance of old antagonisms and the spirit of revenge. We seek, above all, a settlement avoiding a recurrence of war.” Mr. Mason added that New Zealand considered the Charter to be of full effect. Territorial changes, particularly, should not be made unless the strongest case were presented, and certainly not until the views of the inhabitants concerned had been clearly ascertained. “In many cases we shall have no alternative but to accept compromises reached by the great Powers. Let us, however, have a clear guarantee that the Powers regard those compromises as something more than temporary. New Zealand would welcome, in certain instances, international control of areas involving the economy of more than one country or territories, whose people would not otherwise be able to maintain their political and cultural independence, but we consider the Powers should not propose an international solution, unless they are unitedly resolved to uphold that solution as permanent, and make that resolve fully clear to the conference.

Internationa! Solution.

“Given such conditions we believe international solutions can be workable. Some areas dealt with in the treaties may be trouble centres which will occupy the attention of UNO. “We remind the conference that we cannot bind UNO, which is bound only by the Charter; also, before any tasks proposed in the treaties for UNO become effective, they must be fully accepted by UNO itself, acting through its organs,” he concluded. The New Zealand delegation reserved for the commissions its detailed proposals affecting the draft treaties. ITALY DISMAYED AT TREATY TERMS ROME, August 1. The Italian Cabinet, alter spending five hours examining the draft peace treaty for Italy, issued a communique protesting that besides “grievous territorial losses” and “condemnation to defensive impotence,” Italy is subjected to economic clauses about which her opinion was never asked. The communique added that the Italian unofficial delegation to the Peace Conference had been instructed to do its utmost to obtain terms “enabling Italy to participate in international reconstruction.” “The peace terms are hard—harder than I expected. I fully share the public dismay,” said the Italian Prime Minister (Signor de Gasperi), when telephoning Signor Nenni, the Italian Foreign Minister designate, who is in Paris heading the unofficial Italian Peace Conference delegation. The Italian delegation has circulated to the other delegations a protest against the “reflection on Italian honour” in the proposed reduction of Italian naval strength. The memorandum insists on Italy’s right to negotiate concerning her navy without admitting the obligation to surrender. It says that the reduction in the surface fleet is wrong. Submarines are indispensable for training anti-sub-marine forces, which Italy needs for her maritime trade. The memoran-dum-demands a total naval personnel of at least 40,000.