Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, JUNE 16, 1920. LEAGUE OF NATIONS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIV, Issue LIV, 16 June 1920, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, JUNE 16, 1920. LEAGUE OF NATIONS

A FRENCH inventor i« said to Lave designed a gun with a range of 150 miles —a weapon wmch .would enable London to be bombarded from Ostend. This ns only one and a small advance- the science of destruction and it *s easy to understand the fervency of Lord Grey’s appeal on behal! of the League of Nations, when he says that ‘‘if Great Britain does not support the League with all her might and resources—and this depends solely upon the will or the people—the League _ itself will assuredly wither and die. And P the League .should die* God help our children, for no human agency can save them from calamities to. which the late war will appear as the merest trifle.” The difficulties surrounding the present league tend to obscure its real significance. It is necessary to view the matter in the true perspective. Mr G. H. Perris, writing recently in an encouraging strain in the Daily Chronicle, credits the League of. Nations with having made a good strong start. “It has,” he says, “begun the administration of. the .Sarre Valley territory between Germany and France, and of the free port of Danzig, between Germany and Poland. It has taken the first steps toward the establishment of a Permanent Court of International Justice, an International Health Bureau, and a Transit Committee, and toward the holding of an International Financial Confer-' ence and an inquiry into the condition of Russia. And now it has before it three subjects of_ the utmost difficulty—the reduction and control of armaments, the terms of the mandates under which conquered or derelict countries are to be ruled in general, and the destiny of Armenia in particular.” But the fact that the League is in its infancy and peculiarly exposed to the dangers attending that trying period is sufficiently brought out in the influential appeal which was recently launched in Great Britain 'for a national fund of £1,000,000 for its support, The appeal bears the signatures of Lord Grey of Falloden, Mr ' Lloyd George, Earl Beatty, Mr Asquith, Lord Robert Cecil, and ¥r J. B-, Clynes. It expresses the case for the League in terms that are eloquent and' should be convincing. Lest anyone should consider that the fund which is asked for is needlessly large it is pointed out that it represents but the bare cost of four hours of the late war. The appeal reiterates arguments which - have certainly not lost their cogency. “The League of Nations was called into being/’ it is pointed out, “in the flood of idealism and self-denial caused by the agony of the later stages of the war. It was created in the heartfelt desire of every soul who fought to have done for all time with the abomination of modem war. Whatever selfish nationalism may have crept into the life nf the ivorld since the armistice, it was those higher ideals, Mfhich fransmend selfish nationalism, Lief; inspired the _ League; -ml ' dhose are the ideals whffih