REFORM OF THE LEAGUE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21716, 3 February 1934, Page 10

REFORM OF THE LEAGUE

Addressing his constituents, Mr. L. S. Amery said that he was glad that the reform of the League of Nations had been raised by the resolution of the Fascist Grand Council. The League was in a bad way, and nothing less than a far-reaching reform of its constitution could give it new life and restore its moral authority. Its failure had not been due to lack of good will or sincerity on the part of the Governments concerned so much as to the fundamental weakness of a constitution, hastily patched up in the course of the peace negotiations, which attempted to embody two opposite and inconsistent conceptions —that of promoting peace by providing continuous facilities for tho friendly discussion of possible difficulties, and the building up of an increasingly important network of cooperation on all questions affecting tho social, industrial and intellectual activities of nations, and the conception of what was frequently referred to as the collective system of enforcing peace. The only way of saving the League was to cut out of the Covenant all tho clauses containing guarantees and sanctions, and to make the League, in theory as in fact, a purely consultative body, a standing international conference, aiming not at the forcible prevention of war, but at the peaceful promotion of peace. On those terms alone was it possible for the United States, Russia, or Japan to co-operate in it in future. He understood .that that was part of the reform contemplated by Signor Mussolini, and to that extent he was heartily in favour of it. He was equally in favour of divorcing the League Covenant from the Versailles treaties and so securing Germany's reentry. This would mean that there could be no discussion of disarmament by the League until Germany's claim to bo tho sole judge of her defensive requirements had been formally recognised.