Nelson Evening Mail MONDAY, MARCH 31, 1930 WORLD POLITICS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 31 March 1930, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail MONDAY, MARCH 31, 1930 WORLD POLITICS

THE countries which are attracting the greafest amount of attention in tlio world, at the present time, are those which contain the greatest populations—the United States, Russia, China, and India, which in the aggregate contain some 1000 million people, or considerably more than half the. population of the globe. The United Stales are conspicuous for their great commercial pro-

ductivity, thoir consequent wealth, and the extraordinary influence which tlioy exercise in world-politics. Before the World War this was not so, but they used Clio opportunity which tho warring nations gavu them to accumulate-groat wealth, with the rosult that at the conclusion of the struggle the majority of Iho belligerent nations wero their debtors. It was President Woodrow Wilson who drafted the League of Nations' Covenant, and dictated Die most fundamental Articles of the Versailles Treaty. It was his successor, President Harding, (who summoned the first Naval Disarmament Conference, seven or eight years ago, and through his Socrotary of State presented to the assembled delegates of the Naval Powers a ciit-and-dried plan of partial disarmament which is still in force. During the last thirteen years the United States, in spito of their declared policy of non-interference in the affairs of the European Continent, have dictated, on two occasions, plans for

settling the payment of the reparations which, under the Versailles Treaty, the defeated Germans, shall make to their conquerors. It is true that at the present moment the American people are- preoccupied largely in adjusting their commercial and industrial situation which has beconio congested through over-pro-

uuctfon, but nevertheless they loom large in the affairs of the world, whether in the Far East, South and Central America, or Europe. Russia attracts world-wide attention by her renewed attempt, under Stalin, to put into operation the experiment in Communism devised by Nikolai Lenin, and in part abandoned by him. As was inevitable, this experiment has brought the Soviet Government into collision wjith the religious sentiments of the great bulk of the Russian people, since it is evident that the Christian religion and the confiscation of private property underlying the principle of Communism cannot exist harmoniously together. But that does not decrease Christendom's resentment of the Russian Government's anti-God campaign, the virulent nature of which is-indicated by a declaration addressed by the Leningrad committee of the Militant Godless League to the people of Christendom: — Well, Messieurs, —Churchmen, Lords, and Bourgeois, wo take note of your bowlings, finding in your evil words confirmation of our work. We gladly oppose the Pope's appeal and the resolution of the English priests, dictated to them by international capital as an expression of class solidarity with the kulaks and nepmen. You can damn us as much as you like in black letters. The day is coining when the world s godless worker* will turn your Vatican into a museum where that scarecrow, the Pope of Rome, will be stuffed and placed side by side with a Shaman (primitive medicine-man) from Siberia as a monument to thousands of years of errors and trickery of priests. Forward, Godless comrades! No comment is needed. But such an ebullition proves conclusively how far the ruling class in Russia has drifted from the ordinary standard of civilised speech. It also accounts for the horrified attention which the cultured and Christian nations of the world give to this inexcusable and barbaric attempt to stamp out Christianity in Russia. The situation in China attracts worldwide attention because of the two major objects which its Nationalist government has in view—the political unification of the country and the termination of all privileges heretofore extended to the nationals of Treaty. Nations resident in China. Recently, "Punch" published a cartoon, apropos of this latter. It represents the British Foreign Secretary talking to John Chinaman. Says Mr Hender-

son, "Isn't your withdrawal of extraterritorial rights from my countrymen a little sudden?" To which John Chinaman replies, "We humbly thought that it might bo good practice for your Excellency's honourable evacuation of Egypt." The United States, equally with Great Britain, comes in for a jibe in reference to China's proposal to exercise her sovereign rights in respect to resident foreigners. The U.S. Secretary of State despatched several Notes to the Chinese Government, drawing attention to the imperfection of China's Courts and penitentiaries, and voicing the same sentiment as that which Mr Henderson is represented as expressing above. Thus, "The China Weekly Review" (Shanghai) : Whether the prison situation in the United States is as serious as the cable reports in the local foreign newspapers would make us believe is impossible to say, but undoubtedly the news reports must provide food for serious thought on the part of the Chinese, who are being pressed by the United States and the other Powers to reform their Courts and their prison and legal systems. We hope that the United States, Great Britain, France, and the other

Powers will keep after the Chinese until they have developed the best legal and Court system in the world, and then after China has clone so, we hope that Secretary Stimson -will send a commission over here to study the Chinese system with the object of developing a similar model system in the United States. Of course, the whole matter hinges on there being a stable Government in China, and that seems to be as far away as ever. Much is to be said for Mr Stimson's contention, though it is impossible to see how he can enforce it.

India attracts attention because there seems to be a general opinion outside the British Empire, that Great Britain [imposes to abandon, or will be turned out of, the Indian peninsula. Recently a German journal published a cartoon representing John Bull being thrown from the back of an elephant (India), leaving the mahout, an Indian, in control of the animal. Underneath was written, "Even Indian elephants kick when goaded." Of course this unsympathetic attitude towards Great Britain is attributed to the expected .success of the notorious Gandhi's anti-British campaign. That campaign seems to be proving a "frost." Presently, unless he can do something spectacular, the so-called "Mahatma will find himself a discredited revolutionary. In which case, the Indian Government's task will be rendered easier, and Great. Britain's Indian problem will be simplified. In any case the world will learn that Great Britain has no intention of "scuttling" from India, but that her

efforts to democratise that country, whether they be wise or no, are merely the. exhibition of her dosiro to raise India in the scale of Civilisation.