THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1936 OIL SANCTIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22344, 15 February 1936, Page 12

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1936 OIL SANCTIONS

The long-expected report of the League's technical committee on oil sanctions is at last ready for the consideration of all the Governments pledged to the enforcement of economic pressure on Italy. Although by their previous decisions they have manifested a determination to proceed with an embargo of this kind, under the direction of the Co-ordin-ation Committee which is arranging the application of pressure, they will doubtless consider the report as indicating a new departure. After all, in any action taken, the responsibility rests with the Governments; the League recommends only. Viewed thus, the report offers an opportunity to express themselves afresh. It is, as was anticipated, a cautious document. Together with the attached findings of three subcommittees on special aspects of the problem, it emphasises the difficulties in the way. For one thing, an oil embargo, even if universally applied, cquld not become effective until about three months of its operation had elapsed. This belief is in accorance with the inevitable complexity of organisation and particularly the need to allow time for some readjustment of industry and shipping. Further, the unaided efforts of all the League States cannot be expected to do more than render Italy's purchase of petrol more difficult arid costly; the co-operation of the United States, at least by the limiting of exports to Italy to the normal •level prior to 1935, would be required to make the embargo cripplingly efficient. Consequently, in order to reduce the margin of inefficiency as much as possible, "it is recommended that the embargo be extended to include such substitutes as alcohol and benzol and that special care be taken to hamper Italy's procuring of foreign tankers to supplement her own shipping resources.

From the nature of these findings the difficulty of making oil sanctions serve their purpose completely can be readily seen. Yet no suggestion is made of abandonment of the intention to impose them. The difficulty attaches to all forms of economic ■sanctions. None can be 100 per cent effective so long as any considerable resistance exists, and the double handicap suffered by the League—in its limited membership and the abstention from co-operation on the part of some of its members —merely accentuates the normal obstacles in the arduous path. To hamper to the utmost that is practicable is the aim, and while the certainty of success is obviously decreased by the handicap, as League members well know, the fact that the oil embargo is confessedly feared by Italy encourages the putting forth of every possible means to employ its hampering influence. In this instance there will be no opposition from France; the new Government is less inclined than the old to clog League action and much more disposed to work in harmony with Britain. No great virtue may characterise French agreement with the oil embargo, for, as M. Flandin naively explains, France is not directly concerned with the production or transport of oil. But the attitude of France, even if it have no better prompting, relieves the League policy of an influence that has hitherto been obstructive, at all events indirectly, by weakening enthusiasm elsewhere; and it robs Italy of the hope of French support, more or less overt, that at earlier stages of the contest with the League was an encouragement in defiance. If all the other members openly pledged to loyal compliance with Article 16 of the Covenant are prepared to do their part, the oil embargo, by its prospective if not its early effect on Italy, may prove to be a powerful weapon for peace. There is no certainty of this unanimous co-operation, however; and the likelihood of American partnership is extremely slender. By its killing of the Neutrality Bill, under which the President was to have large powers of prohibiting commercial intercourse with combatants, the American Congress has left the way open for Italian access to immense quantities of foreign oilfuel and of foreign shipping. Unless on consideration of the report, which, has been sent to the United States among certain non-members of the League, there be some modification of this American attitude, the outlook for oil sanctions will be far from promising. Possibly a realisation that a serious moral responsibility will rest on their country, if the loyal nations of the League get no help from it in their fight for peace, will induce some Congressmen to change their minds, but experience discourages hope of that. The whole question of oil sanctions —of sanctions in general, it must be added—is made no easier of solution by the experts' report. They may be quite right in their impressive estimates of Italy's requirements, in spite of a suggestion to the contrary ; but their analysis of the position leaves the Committee of Eighteen, which has soon to say whether the embargo is to be imposed, to find its own way, with such guidance as may be imparted by Governments, to a i momentous decision.