Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1919. THE FUTURE AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIII, Issue LIII, 8 November 1919, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1919. THE FUTURE AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS.

‘ ; BY disarming Germany,” said the Minister for the Australian Navy (Sir Joseph Cook), ,“we have put a tremendous economic power in her hands.” Sir Joseph Cook estimates that by relieving Germany of the incubus of conscription, and naval construction, we save her £230,000,000 a year for industrial use. That is Hi actual cash. The saving in man power is difficult to estimate, But with all the hands that militarism kept economically idle Employed in reproductive work, the output of the country when, settled conditions return must be enormously increased and the cost decreased. And Germany will be the one nation, to onjov these advantages. This is what will happen if ’ the other nations do not, by agreement among themselves, follow the example they have compelled Germany to set. With the handicap of expensive armaments, for them to compete successfully for the world's trade would be impossible. The question, says the Telegraph,' in commenting on the matter, how are matters to be equalised? Iheio are only two ways. One is to put Germany's military incubus back where it was before tho war, tho other for the Allies to get rid of their own burdens. The farmer alternative would mean throwing awayali that the war is supposed to have won fof civilisation, and lender the sacrifice ev ( ;r Ja'own to mankind null and void. No hope beckons in that direction. T’ n c choice, therefore, is between the Allies giving Germany the benefit of exclusive* disarmament, or finding a way by which they can themselves share to the same extent, in that advantage. It is scarcely necessary, it goes on to say, to consider how long a country like Germany, made rich and strong out of the folly of the self-impoverished Allies, would take to turn the tables on them, and use that strength in an effort to become militarily as well as economically supreme. The plain fact is that the Allies couldn n t undertake the task of bearing the burden of modern militarism themselves while Germany was relieved of it. “Spend your last .dollar, on preparations for a fight to the last,” says Sir Joseph Cook. “We have sighed the Peace," he continues, “but Europe is still full of mutual hatreds, even amongst, the Allies. It is a,s inevitable as wo live to-day that there will be other wars, unless the League of Nations can prevent them.’’ That is humanly indisputable. Hence it, is on ibo saving clause that civilisation’s only hope now hangs. Unless the League of Nations can relieve the Allies of the curse which would compel them to spend' their last dollar on preparing for another war the last dollar would very soon be reached, with universal bankruptcy and chaos in sight. Expensive as the last war was, to prepare for another of its kind would be infinitely more so. How could tho nations possibly eider upon such a task. The last war has imposed burdens upon them under which thety are staggering, and must expect to stagger for years to ccmo. On every side appears the prospect of taxation and more taxation to be piled upon -the unprecedented weight of it already carried. Meanwhile tho world has to pull up the arrears of five years, during which Hs energies were withdrawn from production and employed in dcstructioili. This will tax Us resources to the utmost without adding the burden of the armaments that would be necessary if each nation had to prepare for another war. Unless the League of Nations comes to the ..rescue 1 with some plan of obviating that, necessity therefore there is nothing ahead of the world but an abyss of impossibility and despair. Like • all those who have studied tho question carefully the Telegraph does not expect the League of Nations will or can enable immediate disarmament, and until that comes into sight wc must make the best of things as they are. Without some armed force at its back the League would 1 amount to no more than a pious exhortation at any time. But the* nations acting as a lawful community instead will be able to do with less force to protect themselves than if acting an a mob of anarchistic individuals. And therein lies the whole source of the hope that it may lighten a load which is getting beyond, the power of the nations t 0 carry.