Manawatu Daily Times. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1925. The Will to Peace.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2311, 2 December 1925, Page 6

Manawatu Daily Times. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1925. The Will to Peace.

Yesterday gives promise of going down in history of one of me world's great days, for the signing of the .Locarno fact consummated those arduous labours for a lasting peace which have engaged the energy, patience and wisdom of the leading European ’statesmen for the past five years. Speaking at Colchester a ween, after the successful conclusion of the conference which made the little town of Locarno famous, the British Prime Minister, Mr Stanley Baldwin referred to the event as “The Miracle of Locarno,’’ and he had some trenchant things to say about the change or heart among the peoples of Europe which had made such an event pos siblc. He pointed out that to obtain peace, whether at home or abroad, no documents, by themselves, are of any use; no pious resolutions are of any value. The only thing that is 01 value is the will to peace. "The mlr. acle of Locarno is that there has sprung up for the first time in Europe since the waif the will to peace. We have, therefore, been able to build thenjon solid foundations which will bear any superstructure which may be erected upon them. If the promise of peace is fulfilled, as I have every hope that it will be, the peace that we have built up In the West of Europe, is the prelude, the essential prelude to the peace that will ultimately be built up throughout the whole of Europe. I do not despair that before many years arc over you will find elements to-day among the most unlikely which wit recover that will to peace which haa made Itself so manifest In Central and Western Europe. One most Important thing to recognise is the nature of this agreement which has been reached for the first time In Europe. We have before us a treaty or rather a series of agreements, which are of their nature Inclusive and not exclusive. In other words, all such arrangements In the past have been agreements between one nation and another, which, however closely binding to the contracting parties, were designed in essence against a third party. At Locarno there haa been nothing of that kind, for the

agreements are inclusive, and inclu sive alone. They are mutual guarac tees between all the contracting parties, with no direction against any third or any other party. They ara wholly pacific from beginning to end. We want to keep that clearly in mind as marking an essential and fundamental difference between this treaty and those that have gone before It, and it should bo our endeavour to see that such treaties as are built upon this foundation, or are made in a similar manner, should be treaties of the same inclusive, and not exclusive nature. Moreover, they are bound up closely and indissolubl) with the League of Nations, and this alone with the addition of Germany to that body, will enormously strengthen and enhance the power of the League. It is one step forward to the day when the League may be, as Its creators intended it to be, repro sonlative of the nations of the world