EUROPEAN SITUATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23365, 3 December 1937, Page 9

EUROPEAN SITUATION

EASIER THAN LAST YEAR MR W. J. JORDAN’S OPINION LONDON, Dec. 2. (Received Dec. 2, at 9 p.m.) Mr W. J. Jordan, who was interviewed by the Australian Associated Press, said: “The League of Nations, to which mandatory countries are answerable, is the only proper body which can consider claims for the return of colonies, We have separated the .peace treaty from the Covenant of the League, and if dissatisfied countries return to tfie League and reason out their claims satisfaction may be reached, just as under the settlement .of Antioch, and Alexandretta. Efforts being made to reconcile differences led to a realisation that a people must be allowed to expand and to trade, even as Britain necessarily had gone, beyond her shores for the settlement of her people. There would be.far greater willingness to , allow nations to expand if it were not for a warlike attitude which resulted in the suspicion that they , might use the regained territory for military purposes. That is the crux of the present situation. I know, however, frpm my own contacts on the Continent with diplomats and politicians that there is a genuine desire for peace and that a grave fear of wag is behind the building, up of armaments. Diplomatic circles are agreed that the European situation is easier than last year. I believe a general understanding can soon be reached.” ANOTHER OPINION BRUTE FORCE HOLDS SWAY (British Official Wireless) RUGBY, Dec. 1. Sir Samuel Hoare, in a speech at Reading University, said: “Never in our memory has brute force held such wide sway. Would our fathers and mothers, who were brought up in the more liberal and spacious days l of tolerance and humanity, have believed it if they had been told that in 1937 we should be forced an self-protection to provide gas magks fpr babies? Liberty in many -places has been destroyed, justice .travestied, and intolerance tricked out as a virtue. On the other hand, there is the startling contrast of the great growing body of idealism. Old and young are thinking more than ever before of a fuller and freer life in which obligations of citizenship would be more ; universally accepted.”