EMPIRE BEHIND LEAGUE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18530, 15 October 1923, Page 7

EMPIRE BEHIND LEAGUE.

SUPPORT of mil wmmß, ONLY HOPE OF WORLD PEACE. .RECENT CRISIS REVIEWED. EEYEILATION OF INTRIGUES. By Telegraph—Press Association— (Received 4.50 p.m.) A. and N.Z. and Eeuter. LONDON, Oct. 13. General support of the League of Nations by the Prime Ministers of the Dominions is shown in passages from their speeches at the , Imperial Conference, •which are now issued. The speeches were mainly expressions of sympathy with the League's objects and appreciation of Lord Robert Cecil' 3 endeavours. Lord Robert Cecil reviewed the work of the League and claimed that it had achieved an immense amount of most? valuable international co-operation with very great success at wonderfully little expense. Dealing with the fftalo-Greefa dispute, Lord Robert Cecil contended that £he Leaguo had carried out the duty of promoting a settlement. . Its suggestions for a settlement were very valuable and quite sound, but as Italy and Greece j had agreed to settle £ho dispute otherwise than by resort to the Council or the League, it was the duty of the Council to do everything it could to facilitate settlement by these means. The British Empire's foreign policy was to keep the peace. The League was an instrument of that purpose incomparably more effective than anything before in existence. The British people ought to do their utmost to strengthen the League and make it more the cornerstone of British policy. Mr. S. M. Bruce said that Australia was behind the League and would take any action it could to promote the League's authority and. make it as great as possible, "If the League goes," declared Mr. Bruce, " there will be no hope of establishing anything of the sort until we have been through another world tragedy a hundredfold worse than the present generation has seen.'" Mr. W. F. Massey. thought that too much had been expected from the League, he had never thought that the League would prevent war. It was initiated to promote peace by arbitration, conciliation and public opinion. Ho believed that the League had done a great deal of good. . General . Smuts said , that he was informed that the moral stock of the British Empire was very high in .Geneva, where the most remarkable thing was the confidence, faith and reliance ■ which representatives of all small peoples' of the world manifested in the British Empire's stand for justice, fair play* and international honesty. He stiongly urged the Empire Governments to keep their hands clean and to support the League and support smaller peoples where their interests clashed with /those of larger peoples. The League ideal seemed to be' the only hope of th© world against unrest and the break up of Europe. Therefore, if . there was any practical fores likely to keep the nations together and to offer : protection against. complete reaction and brigandage, wfiich ieemed now to be setting in, it should be exploited fully. ..'..''",■•..• The Daily Telegraph's diplomatic correspondent states that there is a possibility of further discussion ; by the Imperial Conference on' the Janina aril- Corfu affairs, when a formal resolution relating to the League may be passed.. The Marquis Curzon in his recent speech gave ah unvarnished account of . the intrigues leading up to and, subsequent to these incidents. The correspondent gathers that Lord Curzon suggested that he was far from satisfied with- the course .pursued by the allies in certain phases of the negotiations/ V • :.-- ; :-- , . Mr. ,W. L. Mackenzie King,.'■ who appeared at first to adopt a somewhat aloof policy , toward V European problems, now feels as strongly as his colleagues about the League's work and chief foreign issues before the Conference. -.