PUBLIC OPINION AND PEACE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 10 May 1939, Page 10

PUBLIC OPINION AND PEACE

ADDRESS BY WOMAN SPEAKER ENTHUSIASTIC AUDIENCE THREAT BY THE DICTATORS An enthusiastic audience in the Labour Party rooms. Nelson, listened to an address by Mrs Elsie Freeman, 8.A., of Wellington. on “The Fight for Peace.” Mr W. E. White, who presided, de- ! dared that Fascism was the great menace to-day to world peace and de- | mocracy, and gave quotations from Nazi leaders to show conclusively that i no reliance could be placed in their ; pledges. Mrs Freeman had come to Nelson at the conclusion of a Dominion tour as secretary and joint editor of i "Woman Today” to arouse the atten- | tion of the public, particularly women, | to what could be done for peace. Everybody wanted peace, said Mrs Freeman, but unfortunately there was too much wishful thinking, too much believing that individual desire was sufficient. It was essential to examine world conditions to ascertain just how we had got into the dangerous state which exists to-day and find out if any steps could be taken to restore international law and ord’r. The threat to world peace came from the three dictator powers, Germany, Italy and Japan; not because their peoples were particularly warlike (they had no opportunity to impress their desire on their Governments) but because the vested interests were interested in exploitation and prestige abroad as much as at home. Adventures like the invasion of another country also seryed to distract popular discontent in their own countries. In 1931 the world appeared comparatively secure, with the peoples having faith in such treaties as the KelloggBriand Peace Pact and the Covenant of the League of Nations. Then Japan invaded Manchuria, the Covenant was broken and no attempt made to prevent I the success of Japan’s aggressive aims. This gave a lead to other governments and within eight short years we have had the loss of independence of Abyssinia, Spain, Austria, Czechoslovakia. Memel and Albania, with China still fighting for existence. Mrs Freeman described events in Spain, Austria and Czechoslovakia to show “the new technique of aggression” —fomenting rebellinon in another country and then stepping in to support the poor, ill-treated minority. Events showed that aggressive governments, faced with a determined resistence, drew back with their plans, The invasion of Austria planned at the time of the Dollfuss murder in 1934. a German invasion of Spanish Morocco and the first threat against Czechoslovkia in May last year thwarted by a firm stand on the part of other states Poland had recently been saved, at least temporarily by her own attitude, the position of the USSR, the English guarantee and President Roosevelt’s attitude. International law and order must be restored, otherwise there wos no hope for that necessary respite on which more permanent foundations could be laid. The democratic powers. France. Great Britain and the U.S.S.R. held undoubted superiority, moral, financial, economic and military, over the Fascist states and would enjoy the support of

11 the United States and the smaller do- j * mocracies if they were united. A conJ ference of democratic powers to deal j with the situation was the first step. The New Zealand Government should make it plain to the nations that ir , supported such a step, declared Mrs _ I Freeman. Unity against aggression tv would not however be effective unless public opinion in all the countries con cerned was well-informed and organised in support of genuine peace measures. In New Zealand not only were people ignorant of the situation, but 1 peace efforts were hopelessly divided I between many organisations. The first j to alter this was a peace conference of | New Zealand organisations which was being convened shortly by the League - of Nations Union. o Support for this was being given by ~ the “Woman To-day” Sponsers’ League, r Inc. This magazine was free from any sect, party or commercial influence, - and could not yield profit for anybody; t it existed purely to put forward its - ideals of peace, freedom and progress, a Other educational forces mentioned wer* t the W.E.A., the Left Book Club and r the Pan-Pacific Women’s Association. o Mrs Freeman then mentioned other a steps which could be taken to help the f cause of peace—assistance to the Chin- - ese people, refusal to buy Japanese i, goods, and aid to the refugees; breaking down of prejudices and internations} al barriers, and strengthening of des j mocracy. Genuine defence was necesh j sary but it must be remembered that s ; the first line of defence wa> a genuine ei peace policy and so called “defence” ,v organisations usually served to cover e the mistakes of British policy, y Modern war was something even .- worse than 1914-1918, and every ounce of energy should be thrown into the n i fight to restore peace to the world. /, At the conclusion of her address Mrs i- Freeman answered many questions and y resolutions were carried asking Mr s Savage to declare his support for a e conference of democratic powers to deal n with the present situation, and supports ing the New Zealand Peace Conference e convened by the League of Nations d Union. r A very hearty vote of thanks was accorded the speaker and a substantial i- collection testified to the interest of the g meeting. The meeting was held under ;- the auspicies of the Left Book Club. It >f was announced that a further lecture n entitled “Some Aspects of Modern Poliis tical Literature” would be held in the it near future. 5.