LEAGUE AND SANCTIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22444, 13 June 1936, Page 16

LEAGUE AND SANCTIONS

DENIAL OF FAILURE "NOT PROPERLY APPLIED" [ 11V TKT.F.fJRAPH —OWN CORJIKSPONDKNT*] PALMERSTON NORTH, Friday The statement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Neville Chamberlain. that sanctions had failed and that the policy of the League of Nations should be modified in future, was commented upon by Professor F. L. W. Wood, professor of history at Victoria University College and Dominion president of the League of Nations Union, when speaking at Palmerston North tonight. " In my opinion the statement is deplorable," said Professor Wood, "not so much because of the practical policy affected, as because of the reason he gave. If Mr. Chamberlain was correctly reported, he said the policy of sanctions had failed and, therefore, should be abandoned.

" The point to my mind is that the policy of sanctions has not been tried and, therefore, cannot be said to have failed. Sanctions have been extraordinarily effective as far as they could possibly go, but for various reasons they never have been applied in the sense they were intended to bo applied. Consequently it is wholly false reasoning to say sanctions have been tried and failed. " Mr. Chamberlain said it would bo necessary to confine the League to things it could accomplish, which means taking from it all hope or ambition of being able to prevent wars in future. That is a very serious thing to say. It means we have to go back to pre-war conditions and a policy ot national armaments which, throughout history, has failed to preserve peace. "I deplore what Mr. Chamberlain has said, especially when it conies from a man prominent in a party whoso platform supported the League. I find it more depressing as regards international affairs than anything else that has happened for many years." Professor Wood sair) the League should not be judged on its failures in respect to Japan, Italy and - Germany, but on its many successes in preventing other wars, lie was of the firm opinion that, had there not been a League, Germany's entry into the Hhineland last March would have resulted in another world conflict.