LEAGUE'S FAILURE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22399, 21 April 1936, Page 9

LEAGUE'S FAILURE

"GENEVA FIREBRANDS" LONDON PAPER'S COMMENT EMPEROR'S FAITH MISPLACED GERMAN PRESS JUBILANT By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright LONDON, April 19 " In view of Marshal Badoglio's lightning strokes and swift advance it seems as though sanctions and Abyssinia have been defeated by one and the same blow," says the Daily Mail in an editorial article. The paper adds: "No more memorable feat has been accomplished in military history than Italy's speedy conquest of the wild and mountainous Abyssinian tableland. "It is most unfortunate that the British Government seems never to have had the slightest inkling that the war would end quickly, as it is now certain to do. The Negus seems to be doomed to lose his whole country, because lie placed his faith in the wild talk of the Geneva firebrands. They, as was predicted, failed him. Thus the Government's blunders have had most unfortunate consequences for those who put tlieir trust in it." The Berlin -correspondent of the Times states that newspapers unanimously celebrato what they regard as the failure of Geneva's policy of sanctions. They say the Abyssinian problem was admittedly a test case and the result has shown that the League is burdened with a task it is unable to fulfil.

The Berliner Tageblatt says: "In the war between Italy and the League the honours go to Italy.'"'

COLLECTIVE SECURITY "NATIONS MUST BE READY" THREATS TO AGGRESSORS British Wireless RUGBY. April 19 Mr. Stanley Baldwin, speaking at Bewdley on the Italo-Abyssinian situation, said: "If Italy thinks the object of Britain's policy is to bring about her defeat and humiliation that is a profound mistake on her part." Referring to collective security, Mr. Baldwin said: "We are working for it and shall work for it. We have not yet achieved it, and we have some way to go before we shall get it. Collective security will never work unless all nations who take part in it are prepared simultaneously to threaten with military sanctions any future aggressor. That means that nations who take part in collective security must be ready."

Continuing, Mr. Baldwin said that in their efforts to preserve peace they must see in what the League was lacking and how it could be strengthened, how collective security could be obtained, and what guarantees they could get in Europe that poison gases would not be used. "But what chance have we?" asked Mr. Baldwin. "I would not say the omens are wholly unfavourable. The sky is dark in many quarters, but we have proposals before us, both French and German, to which we are giving our most serious attention.

"It is the first time that similar proposals have come simultaneously from these two European Powers, and who is more fitted to investigate this question and try to bring these countries together than we?"