The Northern Advocate Dally THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1935. NEW ZEALAND AND SANCTIONS

Northern Advocate, 24 October 1935, Page 6

The Northern Advocate Dally

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1935. NEW ZEALAND AND SANCTIONS

Registered for transmission through the post as a Newspaper.

People in New Zealand, who have glibly argued that the League of Nations meant little to this Dominion will have reason to •revise their opinion when they read that Parliament yesterday passed legislation making New Zealand a party to the imposition of sanctions against Italy, The Bill, which was carried without amendment, confers on the Gov-ernor-G eneral-in-Council the pow cr to make regulations to enable the Dominion, as an original member of the League of Nations, to fulfil the obligations undertaken in terras of Article XYI of the Covenant. The action of Parliament in legislating as it did is but the logical result of the signature which New Zealand voluntarily appended to the Covenant of the League of Nations. Under the Covenant, the signatories solemnly pledged themselves to abide by the provisions of the various Articles of the Covenant, and to take disciplinary action against any member which violated its pledge. Italy, unfortunately, in making war on Abyssinia, has violated her pledge, and the remaining members of the League have been compelled, as honourable nations, to act in accordance with the disciplinary provisions of the Covenant. Their action is not of a punitive nature they have realised that, if civilisation is to be preserved,, and if future generations of all nationalities are to be saved from the horrors of Avar, the efficacy of the League must be proved. The world is at the crossroads. If the League succeeds in demonstrating its collective power, a new day will dawn for mankind; if it fails to prove that collective action can produce security the world will slip back into an endless night of terror too dreadful to contemplate. New Zealand, as a member of the League of Nations, has now joined tire' 58 countries which have authorised the application of sanctions in the meantime are to be tions against Italy. The sane-!

restricted to economic measures. These, it is devoutly to be hopect will effect the desired result ot bringing about negotiations which will result in an honourable peace between Italy and Abyssinia, and, at the‘same time, reveal the power of the League of Nations to abolish wai* as a means of settling international disputes. So far as New Zealand is concerned, it should he realised that the decision by Parliament yesterday does not do more than make it possible for the Dominion, to act in unison with Britain, as a member of the League of Nations, in any steps Die League may take. The applieaton of economic sanctions by New Zealand cannot affect Italy very derlying the Dominion’s decision materially, but the principle unis vital to the issue of the, ItaloAbyssnian war. New Zealanders should realise that they, like the other unity of the British Empire, are now very definitely participants in perhaps the greatest movement in hsttory.