LEAGUE OF NATIONS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 10956, 19 July 1921, Page 7

LEAGUE OF NATIONS

MINERS’ FEDERATION VIEW®. The Wellington Presbytery recently decided to. seek the co-operation of Labour organisations in obtaining support for the League of Nations, and the following reply has been forwarded to the Presbytery. from tho New Zealand Miners’ Federation—“Re you r communication of May 10th, we, the representatives of a section of the proletariat in New Zealand, recognise with pleasure the alarm permeating some sections of society regarding war phenomena. Tins pleasure is derived through your recognising that something is wrong with the conditions of 'human society. We are firml- convinced through scientific investigations of the economic basis of society that war is inevitable. By a concentration of capital, national and international, lands open for capitalistic development become more scarce. “Bach Industrially developed country, to protect its trade and maintain fCn outlet for its surplus commodities, has got to spend large sums in building huge navies and military forces. The league of Nations, which yoii regard as essential to preserve peace, functions as a weapon of repression, and aggression in the interests of those capitalists combined to form a League of Nations. “The League finds as those large industrial countries who repudiate it as an effective remedy for their conditions. These two camps opposing each other on the economic field are ever readv to resort to war when their economic interests clash. “We, the miners, stand for the complete metamorphosis of this society, with itß economic interests based on the slavery of the many in the interests of the few, to a society wherein production is for use only, and the incentive to war is completely destroyed.”