CRITICISM OF LEAGUE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 256, 28 September 1932, Page 7

CRITICISM OF LEAGUE

MR DE VALERA’S SPEECH. UTTERANCES COMMENDED. JAPAN AND THE COVENANT. (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received September 28, 9.40 a.m. LONDON, Sept. 27. The Guardian in an editorial commends Mr de Valera’s utterance at the Assembly of the Leaguo of Nations and adds: “It is high time that someone conveyed tho world’s criticisms to the League. Mr de Valera performed this moderately and forcibly without cotton wool in his mouth. Japan has driven a coach and four through the Covenant. The Disarmament Conference has encouraged the Germans to join the ranks of the wreckers.”

LEAGUE ON ITS TRIAL.

MUST LEAD OR CONFESS FAILURE

Received September 28, 9.30 a.m. GENEVA, Sept. 27. “I agree with Mr de Valera that the League is on trial and must lead the nations or confess itself unequal to the great task,” declared Mr W. M. Hughes, of Australia, in a debate in the Assembly. Although the League was labouring diligently to fulfil its glittering promises, wars and rumours of wars were disturbing men’s minds. No scheme of disarmament devised could bo regarded as an earnest to the nations to tread the paths of peace. Instead of a world fit for heroes, crisis succeeded crisis, trade was stagnant, bankruptcy faced many nations, revolution and civil turmoil were prevalent. “We cannot expect miracles,” said Mr Hughes, “but I believe disarmament is possible if approached in the right spirit. Conferences have failed because the nations want security. Peace is impossible while tho world is seething with industrial unrest. Tens of millions are unemployed and only saved from starvation by charity. Tho world is engaged in an insensate, desperate trade war. Communism is ceaselessly active. Only when the people are decently employed under decent conditions will the gospel of Bolshevism fall on deaf ears.” LEAGUE’S ACCOMPLISHMENTS. SHOULD NOT BE IGNORED. (British Official Wireless.) Received September 28, 11.17 a.m. RUGBY, Sept. 27. The speech by Mr de Valera at the opening of the Leaguo Assembly has attracted considerable attention and gives rise to varying opinions in the Press. The Telegraph comments on “the strange irony which introduces Mr de Valera, who has been the foremost advocate of self-contained nationalism and critic of the League on its incomplete success in welding the nations’into one international power.” Tho News says: “The speech should have the satisfactory result of causing friends and enemies to re-examine the grounds for their opinions, but what has actually been accomplished by tho League should not be ignored by them as it appears to be ignored by Mr de Valera. His statements regarding Ireland, though regarded as out of place on such on occasion, attract little comment.”

In the course of his remarks at the opening of tho Assembly of tho League Mr de Valera said that people wore complaining that the League was over active in secondary matters, but shelved, postponed and ignored problems touching the people’s very existence. Ho added that much of the criticism was unjustified, uninformed and ‘ not wholly disinterested, but tho Leaguo would undoubtedly bo judged by the results of the Disarmament Conference in which the progress was far short of the world’s desire. Tho larger problems in tho Far East were unsolved. There was world-wide evidence of an impending economic collapse. One hundred million people faced starvation in a world of plenty. The nations must face the desperate situation frankly and honestly.

M. HKRRIOT’S SPEECH.

INDIGNATION IN GERMANY. .LONDON, Sept. 27. The Manchester Guardian’s Paris correspondent says that the Nationalist Press applauds the speech of the French Premier, M. Herriot, at Gramat, in which he stated he was glad that France was not the only country to emphasise that German rearmament would be the prelude to a return to the world’s former follies, but Radical papers only half-heartedly approve, some feeling that M. Herriot lias gone too' far and that his speech is almost certain to have a serious effect on the Disarmament Conference. The correspondent of the Times at Berlin says that the speech has aroused a* storm of indignation. German Nationalist newspapers declare that it is now clear to the whole world that France has no intention of either disarming or even considering Germany’s claim to equality.

MEETING OF BUREAU ADJOURNS

GENEVA, Sept. 27. Following a private meeting of the Bureau of the Disarmament Conference, Air Arthur Henderson at a public sitting announced the adjournment until October 10, when the date of the general commission will be decided. LEAGUE’S EXPENDITURE. GENEVA. Sept. 26. Sir Thomas Wilford told the Sun Agency that he had refused the presidency‘of the Legal Committee of the League of Nations, desiring freedom to attend the Budget Committee and intending sniritedly to protest against tlie League’s expenditure.