MINERAL SANCTIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23499, 13 May 1938, Page 16

MINERAL SANCTIONS

“ The traditional idea that ultimate military power is mainly measured by size of population has delayed recognition of the overwhelming concentration in a few States (notably the British Empire and the United States) of real war power under modern conditions conferred by the control of mineral resources.” said Dr C. K. Leith, professor of geology, Wisconsin University, in a broadcast talk. “It is simply impossible for the rest of the countries of the world together, regardless of their great areas and population, to build up ultimate war power to more than a small fraction of the scale of the dominant group. The problem is how and if this power can be collectively used. In advance of war, it is difficult to secure a popular mandate on a physical problem of this kind. Yet a realistic view is that sooner or later war may have to be fought collectively by the 1 have ’ nations in defence of their material and ideological positions. If this is true, is there not some way to use the great power in our hands to preserve world order, by force if necessary, in the hope that it will limit and deter aggression, and that, like the police powers of the Slates, it will seldom require the ultimate use of force? In urging consideration of this procedure I am not attempting to formulate a panacea for war. My purpose is rather to call attention to the fact that events have brought minerals to the front as a leading cause of world unrest: that Nature’s distribution of minerals confers immense potent ion powers on a few nations; that in the not unlikely event of failure of peaceful methods of war prevention, the use of this power by these few nations may be forced in self-defence, raising the question whether such power may not be used affirmatively and collectively to maintain order.”