PERIL FACING NATIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19321, 7 May 1926, Page 13

PERIL FACING NATIONS.

ARMED CLASH IN THE EAST. AMBITIONS TO SEIZE CHINA. A PESSIMISTIC PROFESSOR. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] CHRISTCHUKCH. Thursday. "I am going to talk on a subject that is really hot; that is up-to-date," said Professor Macmfllan Brown, Chancellor of the University of New Zealand, in introducing his lecture, "The United States of Europe: a Forecast," delivered before the Philosophical Institute. Mr. Macinillan Brown's introductory remarks covered a review of universal history in earliest times. The width of the world, he said, removed the necessity for the invention of peace panaceas. History began with the clash of empires. The Chinese Empire, owing to its geographical position, had been the only empire that had established peace among its peoples. The world state was the ancient method of producing peace, and examples of such states were the empire of Alexander the Great, the Roman Empire and the Papacy when controlled by a strong occupant of the Papal Chair. He did not think that the League of Nations was going to secure anything liko permanent peace. No nation would submit its destiny to the vcte of a council of ten, on which it had only one representative. ,The growth of the result of the migrations from the East in the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries—was one of the troubles the League had to overcome. The lesson they drew from Europe's experience in the Middle Ages was that the only way in which Europe could be united and pacific was througha menace, that is, a menace to every nation in Europe. A Russo-Japanese War. Where was such a menace to come from 1 His impression was that it would be from Russia. Russia always had been alien to the spiritual atmosphere of Europe, even when it was governed by tho dynasty which ended recently. Russia was still more Oriental than Occidental and under the Tsars it) meddled constantly with India, China and Japan. It was not surprising that the Bolsheviks had fallen heir to similar ambitions, a.nd their propaganda had gone to China, Japan and India. It looked as if Bolshevik Russia was about to try a fall with Japan. Both Russia and Japan were busy building strategic railways, the objective being Peking. They were after the greatest prize in the world—China—which possessed the greatest unexploited beds of minerals in any part of the world. China had the most marvellous people on the faca of the earth for virility, efficiency and industry, and China was a chaotic nation unless managed from the outside. Japan meant to have the management and exploitation of China, and he predicted that Japan would be victorious over Riissia, as she had been at the first Rus-sian-Japanese war. Momentous Consequences. Whichever won the result would be momentous to Europe and Australia; New Zealand and the United States would have to look out for themselves. The result would mean if Europe was disunited that the nations of Europe would be subdued one after the other and they would sink back into their primitive savagery. The catastrophe could be avoided only by the establishment of the United States of Europe. There was no other way of opposing the force from the Orient. There was a feeble chance that when the European nations realised that they were in bondage to the United States of America they would unite. The United States of America was powerful economically because there were no tariff barriers, and consequently she had the largest market in the world. If the tariff barriers were lowered in Europe there would be a market three times as big as that of the United States. As to the type of framework of the United States of Europe, Professor Macmillan Brown said that it should imitate the flexible elastic organisation of the British commonwealth of nations rather than that of the United States of America.