LEAGUE OF NATIONS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11295, 22 August 1922, Page 6

LEAGUE OF NATIONS

ITS WORK COMMENDED INTERESTING ADDRESS UNDER AUSPICES OF W.E.A. SETTLEMENT OF DISPUTES. An address on “The League of Nations” was given by Mr H. H. Cornish at the Trades Hall on Saturday uight under the auspices of the Workers’ Educational Association. Mr M. J. Forde presided. If Mars, the god of war, was capable of any thought but that of slaughter, said Mr Cornish, he thought -lie would bo rather amused to see the nations of tho world spending so much time, labour, and wealth on building up naval and military armaments, inventing the deadliest poison-bombs, and so on, all with the avowed object of preserving the peace. But he might at the same time be somewhat uneasy to see that, while the nations were piling up armaments in this way, they were doing so sullenly and unwillingly. We read in the cablegrams of guns with an effective range of 80 to 120 miles, so that ships armed with them could bombard London from out of the mists of the North Sea. .And we learn that in America a liquid has been discovered three drops of whioh applied to the skin cause death. Three thousand tons of this liquid can he manufactured in a day, and a. few airships, possibly controlled by wireless, could with it annihilate a city in a few hours. Already airships, tanks, submarines, and other war vessels are controlled by wireless. It has to be remembered, too, that in the next war peaceful non-combatants, rather than the armies in the field and the navies, will be marked out for destruction. “OUTLOOK NOT SO BLACK.” The outlook, however, is not so black as it seems at first sight, for side by side with these preparations for war, wo havo now the machinery for the peaceful settlement of disputes between the nations. That machinery is afforded by the League of Nations, which has only been in existence three years,- but has already done a very great work for peace. Mr Cornish strongly emphasised the horrors of war, and its futility as a means of settling international disputes. He briefly reviewed the Covenant of the League, and, replying to a question, as to why America was not a member of the League, he said that was due mainly to Article 10, under which the signatory Powers bound themselves to respect and preserve as against external aggression the territorial integrity and existing political independence of all members of the League. America, holding to her traditional policy of aloofness from European affairs, refused to bind herself to take up -arms in defence of any European member of the League that might be attacked. It was a difficult matter for America to break away from -her old policy of isolation -in regard to Europe, though no doubt America’s internal politics had also something to do with her not joining the League. For one thing, President Wilson did not seem to have anything like the tact and the power of getting ethers to support his policy possessed, for example, by Mr Lloyd George; find, for another thing, as has been wittily remarked, tbe object of the Republican party in the United States appeared to be, not so much to make the world safe for democracy, as to make America unsafe for the Democrats, (Hear, hear and laughter.) . THE CRUX OF THE MATTER.

The Court of International Justice established by the League comprising as it did many of the ablest international jurists, must, he held, command the respect of every nation. One of the most important Articles was that which required all members of the League to submit disputes between them to arbitration, and fixing a time limit of nine months before war could break out. But the whole crux of the matter was Article 16, which provided that,. should any member of the League resort to wax in disregard- of its covenants, it should ipso facto be deemed to have committed an act of War against all tho other members of the League, which undertake to subject it to an economic, political and social boycott very similar to the old excommunication; and it would he the duty of the Council of the League to determine what armed forces —military, naval or air forces—should be employed in order to maintain the covenants of the League and to protect any member of the League that might be attacked by the covenantbreaking Power.

WHAT THE LEAGUE HAS DONE Reforring to the work done by the league, Mr Cornish stated that it had preserved peace between Norway and Sweden in regard to the Aaland Isles; and it had prevented war between Poland and Lithuania. When the feeling between France and Britain in regard to Upper Silesia rose so high that it seemed about to endanger the Entente, the League of Nations provided the machinery by which a peaceful settlement was arrived at; and when Jugo-Slavia invaded Albania and started a war that might havo led to a European conflagration, the league put an end to, the war and so obviated that grave danger. All this, he pointed out, was accomplished by open diplomaey. Again, the Labour organisation of the league had successfully begun the work of improving labour conditions throughout the world; it had made a serious -beginning in the direction ot controlling and limiting armaments; it had created -an international health organisation, and had done good work towards putting down the white slave trade. Tho Leaguo of Nations, he contended, was the only hope of the salvation of the world. We should all, therefore, support it with all our heart and strength, and get others to support it. It was the best thing that civilisation had yet devised for settling war; and, as the late Lord Bryce had said, “If we don’t settle war, war will settle us.” (Applause.) At the close a lengthy and animated discussion, by way of question and answer, took place. A hearty vote of thanks was accorded the lecturer.