PRESERVING PEACE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23394, 10 July 1939, Page 11

PRESERVING PEACE

THREE-POWER PACT URGED FUTURE COLLECTIVE SECURITY The immediate necessity for a strong peace front as a foundation for collective security and progressive disarmament is urged in a statement on the European situation that has been issued by the Auckland branch of the League of Nations Union.

"The problem of peace is at the present moment solely a problem of power," states the branch. "Certain European and non-European nations, for various reasons, are prepared to pursue a policy of peace. Certain other nations in Europe and Asia are preparing to pursue, or are already pursuing, a policy of war.- Whether we like it or not, peace will at the moment be preserved only if the peace-pursuing nations have such a preponderance of power and such a well-defined unity of intention that the potential aggressors are deterred from embarking on what would be for them a perilous conflict. "It is supremely important, in other words, that the three great European Powers, Britain, France.and the Soviet Union, should be so organised in a peace alliance that the aggressor Powers will know for certain that in the event of unprovoked aggression (wherever in Europe it may occur) they will be met not only by overwhelming power, but by such a premeditated plan in the use of that power that it will not easily be withstood. "The peace front is not enough. It is an expedient devised to postpone the onset of war, to guarantee a period of peace during which the principles, of collective security may onco again be canvassed and made something mora than a dream in the councils of European nations.

"The great Powers who make up the proposed peace front.'.', the statement adds, "must be willing to invito potential aggressors to:, join tliem, to deliberate on the possibilities aud necessities for change in trade and colonial possessions, and to discuss and iii duo timo to agree on some plan for progressive disarmament."