THE W.E.A.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 156, 3 June 1937, Page 4

THE W.E.A.

SESSION OPENS IN FEILDINC The first meeting of the Workers' Educational Association in Feilding was held on Tuesday night when the tutororganiser, Mr P. Martin Smith, M.A., LL.B., gave a lecture on "The Present International Situation." The lecturer took »the view that the present situation could be most fruitfully regarded from the economic point of view.' After briefly surveying, the recent history of economic development throughout the world, the speaker said that the burning issue in Europe was between the Fascist or semi-Fascist States and Russia, with Britain and France in a neutral position though subject to'pressure from both sides. The issue to-day was not so much an issue between national States as between two forms of social and economic organisation or States. The moves of Hitler in organising an anti-Com-munist bloc of Powers were traced, the lecturer giving documentary evidence of an interesting nature to support his thesis. The lecturer also showed that the forces of Italv and Germany were most active in Spain in the regions where there was a supply of •minerals, and suggested that these Powers were finding in Spain supplies of raw materials of which they were short. The speaker concluded by stating that the solution of the international situation lay in national and internal reconstruction. This was necessary before the difficulties of the iternational situation could be in any way solved. Mr A. J. Humphreys "presided over a moderate attendance, and at the conclusion of the lecture a vote of thanks wa& accorded Mi Smith.