A NEW WORLD.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VIII, Issue 312, 5 December 1918, Page 2

A NEW WORLD.

ALLIES’ GREAT CHANCE. SPEECH BY GENERAL SMUTS London. Nov. 18. General Smuts, representing the Government as the host at a dinner in London to the American editors, said that America’s collaboration with the British Empir ’ in reconstructing the future of the world is as significant and ar promising as her entry into the war. He paid a tribute to the largehearted and sportsmanlike way in which the British were celebrating peace without vindictiveness and with *no hymns of hate. ‘‘l had little differences with the British, as you had,” he said, “but let us freely and frankly admit that they are a great people.” (Cheers). The fearfulness of the fate of Prussion militarism wa- the - most ‘awful and most solemn judgment in history, but all Europe to-day was broken and bleeding, and ancient institutions were collapsing wholesale. There -was a danger of a great setback from which Europe would not recover for generations. The Allies must now organise the world against hunger and unemployment. Owing to the new Continental situation it was rapidly being recognised that a League o r Nations had become a sheer practical necessity. The inter-Allied machinery which was going to ration the countries against hunger was the first step towards the League. Similarly, owing to the shortages, raw materials would have to be rationed in the future. The map of Europe would soon be a veritable medley of small nations some of which were already threatened with internal disorders. Therefore a future international organisation to keep peace was imperative. Thus the League of Nations, from small beginnings, would develop vitality and attract a great volume of public opinion, eventually becoming strong enough to essay the supreme task of preserving the world’s peace. The League, moreover, could usefully be employed to depute a nation to act on the League's behalf in governing certain territories, as in the case of some of Germany’s former colonies. Some of these, were quite fairly and properly claimed by, and must be given to the Dominion which conquered them. As regards those that were not so claimed certain powers might be deputed to hold the colonies as mandatories of the League until the question of their ultimate disposal was settled, because the Allies would resist to the utmost their restoration to Germany, as it was impossible to foresee how Germany would develop in the future.

Concluding, General Smuts eloquently urged the making of the best, use of present opportunities. The age of miracles was never past. The whole world was again plastic and susceptible to a new creative impression, and of being remade to better ends or. the lines of universal freedom and justice, thus permanently establishing goodwill among classes and nations. The history of South Africa since the Boer war bore immortal testimonv to the wisdom of a policy oi conciliation. If the victors in th.s greatest of wars approached the problems in the same large temper as the British did after the South African war he believed a great reconciliation of the peoples must, eventuate, even to the disappearance of war itself.