STATEMENT CONDEMNED

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 165, 13 June 1936, Page 2

STATEMENT CONDEMNED

“DEPLORABLE AND DEPRESSING.”

CHANCELLOR CRITICISED.

“My opinion is that the statement made by Mr Neville Chamberlain (Chancellor of the Exchequer) was a most deplorable thing, not so much for the practical policy it expressed, as for the reasons lie gave in advocating it,” declared Professor F. L. W. Wood, M.A., who occupies the Chair of History at Victoria College, and is president of the New Zealand branch of tho League-of Nations Union, during an address in the Municipal Hall last evening, when making reference to the cabled comments made by Mr Chamberlain in England.

“He said the policy of sanctions had failed, and ought to bo abandoned,” added Professor Wood. “Tho point of view to take is that the policy of sanctions has not been tried and. therefore, cannot be said to have failed. Sanctions were found to be extraordinarily effective, but were not fully enforced, for the reason that they were never applied in the sense' that it was intended they should be applied. It could possibly bo said that the difficulties in the" way of their enforcement seemed to be too great. “I interpret Mr Chamberlain s remarks as meaning that be is in favour of the League of-Nations being abandoned. That is a very serious thing to say. He thinks that we can go back to the pre-war days, and that the League of Nations can carry on its other work, but be deprived of its ambitions and hopes to stop war. I think that it is tlie most depressing statement on international affairs that I have heard for months, if not years.”