FAITH IN LEAGUE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22632, 25 July 1935, Page 9

FAITH IN LEAGUE

BRITAIN UNWAVERING MR BALDWIN'S DECLARATION (British Official Wireless.) (United Press Association) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) RUGBY, July 23. Mr Stanley Baldwin and Sir Samuel Hoare to-day .received a deputation of organisers of the national declaration on peace and disarmament, commonly known as the Peace Ballot, in which 11,500,000 votes were cast out of an estimated possible 30,000,000. The deputation was led by Lord Cecil. He presented the result of the voting on six questions submitted which varied from majorities of 13 to 1 in favour of support of the League of Nations to 3 to 1 in favour of the employment of military sanctions. The majority for the total abolition of military and naval aircraft by international agreement was 4 to 1.

Lord Cecil said that the 500,000 voluntary workers by whose services the ballot was taken found everywhere, but especially in humble homes, an eagerness to vote and a very intelligent appreciation of the issues.

The Dean of Chichester emphasised the great interest the churches had taken in the national declaration: It revealed a marked development of opinion, for many who started with pacifist opinions had come to see that the full doctrine of the Covenant was vital to the preservation of peace. Miss K. D. Courtney said the ballot appealed to women because it represented recognition of the value of the judgment and intelligence of the ordinary citizen and because it enlisted the support of people of all parties. The Prime Minister welcomed the deputation, which, he said, would be aware that the foreign policy of his Majesty's Government was founded upon the League. That had been made plain many times in declarations and by its actions at Geneva, where it had taken the lead in endeavouring to secure a settlement of international disputes by peaceful means in accordance with the Covenant. He would not discuss the questions submitted in the ballot in detail, some of which frankly he would have wished to see put in a different form, but he could not but be grateful for the deputation's action in coming to see him and to know that the object of the ballot was not to criticise the Government, but to show that it had a large volume of public opinion behind it in the efforts it was making to-day to maintain the authority of the League. The Prime Minister concluded: "We are living in a period of very disturbed international relations, jind I am glad of the opportunity to assure you that the Government intends to persist in the policy it has hitherto pursued and that the League remains the sheet anchor of British policy."'