THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7,1926. AN INTERNATIONAL WAR CHEST.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19966, 7 December 1926, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7,1926. AN INTERNATIONAL WAR CHEST.

The proposal which emanates from Finland, that the League of Nations should he equipped with an international war chest, is, if it is entertained at all, hardly likely to be accepted in the form it has provisionally assumed. It may be freely acknowledged that the existence of financial resources of huge dimensions, which might be placed by the League at the disposal of any of its members that might be threatened with war, should prove a powerful deterrent to a nation that was disposed to be aggressive. But the idea that the onus of providing the League’s war chest should he placed upon five Great Powers, of which, of course, Great Britain would be one, is not unreasonably regarded with some degree of apprehension by the newspapers at Home that have been discussing it. A loan of ten millions which, it is suggested, the British Government should guarantee, provided each of four other Powers became a guarantor for a similar amount, would, it is true, even if it were never repaid, represent a trifling commitment in comparison with the actual cost of belligerency. The prosecution of the Great War cost Great Britain at one stage a matter of three millions or so every day. Viewed in the light of the cost of war, a guarantee of a loan of ten millions as a share of a peace insurance fund would be a modest undertaking. But, as has been fairly pointed cut, once Great Britain became a guarantor for any amount towards the financing of hostilities on the part of a member of the League against an aggressor, she would find it impossible to withhold such additional financial assistance as might be sought from her. Her experience, moreover, in the guaranteeing of loans for expenditure by other countries upon war operations has not been of such a character as to encourage her to desire a repetition of it. Nor is there any apparent reason why, even if the principle of the proposal by Finland should be accepted, Great Britain and any other four Powers should be expected to supply the whole Of the war chest of the League of Nations. The League is composed of a large number of countries, each one of which is pledged to the promotion of international co-operation and to the achievement of international peace and security. The preservation of peace and the avoidance and prevention of war are objects to which each has subscribed. To the attainment of these objects each one of them is expected and required to make its own separate contribution. The small Powers are concerned not less than the great Powers in the establishment of an international war chest, if the adoption of such a method of financing a war on the part of a victim of aggression is held to be desirable. And though it would be beyond the ability of the smaller Powers to make a contribution to the war chest on the same 'scale as a great Power, no injustice would be inflicted on them if they were assessed to an extent that was in each case proportionate to the member’s resources. It might even be regarded as a useful test of the good faith of the members of the League if they were made jointly and severally liable, according to their ability, to provide the international war chest. Apparently the Disarmament Sub-com-mittee of the Council of the League has been deliberating, with results with which Viscount Cecil is well satisfied, respecting the measures that should be taken for the prevention of war. As a result of these deliberations a recommendation will be made to the League Council this week which. Lord Cecil says, will admit of the use of “all the League’s weapons and influence on behalf of an attacked nation in the event of war being actually started.” The League’s “weapons” to which Lord Cecil refers doubtless include its financial weapons, and it would'seem that these can only be provided by some means of assessment of its members.