The Hawera Star. SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 1931. DEVELOPING INTERNATIONAL MEN

Hawera Star, Volume L, 10 January 1931, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 1931. DEVELOPING INTERNATIONAL MEN

Delivered every evening: by 5 o’clook in Hawera. Manaia. Kaupokonui, Otalceho, Oeo. Pibama, Opunake, Nortnanby, Okaiaiva, Eltham, Ngaere, Mangatoki, Ka-pong-a, Awatuna, Te Kiri, Mahoe, Lowgarth, Manutahi, Kakaramea, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Whenuakura, Waverley, Mokoia, Whakamara, Ohangai. Meremerc, Fraser Road, and Ararata.

The -Secretariat of the League of Xa

lions whose composition has been under discussion, should furnish the world with models of international men. It is true that Ihe chief offices have been allocated to various nations; but the contention, notably of Italy, that appointments to office in the League of Nations should be frankly nationalist, distorts the whole conception of the .League. It does not matter that this post is held by an Englishman and that by a Frenchman, or a third by a 'German and a .fourth by an Italian; but it does matter immensely that in office, each should regard liimsclf not as the nominee of a nation but rather as the servant of the League of Nations. From this standpoint the foreign ministers who go as delegates to Geneva arc admittedly handicapped; tlieyj

doubtless wish to forward the League, but by their office they must consider the particular views of their respective countries. The question may, indeed, arise whether any man who has been brought up in national schools and has acquired national prejudices can ever become entirely independent of his early environment and teaching. The proposal is made—and it is worth pondering —that the officials of the League of nations eventually should be recruited not from this or that country, but from men who have been educated in an international center, such as Geneva itself, which possesses a dis. tinguished university; men who from their youth have resolved to devote themselves to supernational purposes, who have been trained to that end, who from the outset have been developed as international men. Until such an ideal can be made practical, however, the encouragement of the realisation that a League official, by definition, represents no nation, but only the League of Nations, will help overcome extreme nationalistic tendencies. As such he must not be a partisan of any national policy. He must not be swayed by publie feeling at home. In point of fact, it is contended that the atmosphere of Geneva, the contact with fellow officials, a certain habit of thought and practice, have already helped to develop a decided internationalism. It simply remains to carry on the present tendency to its logical conclusion.