LEAGUE OF NATIONS

Otago Witness, Issue 3499, 5 April 1921, Page 19

LEAGUE OF NATIONS

AUSTRIA’S ASSETS. LONDON, March 28. To-day’s meeting of the Economic Section of the League of Nations at Paris will consider Austria’s offer to place the whole of the country’s assets under the control of the league, the Reparations Commission having consented to remove its lien on certain assets. The offeT will probably be accepted. GERMANY’S INCLUSION FAVOURED. LONDON, March 31. Lord Robert Cecil, interviewed by the Australian Press Association, said he was surprised to read Senator Millen’s expression of disappointment and depression over the League’s conferences at Geneva. On the contrary, the Assembly’s success had encouraged the majority of the delegates. Possibly Senator Millen’s disappointment arose through the expectation of something differing from what the covenant contemplated. Apparently Senator Millen thought that the League, if effective, ought to have raised 50,000 troops to protect Armenia, while Mr Hughes complained of its failure to assist Poland, indicating that both hoped that the League would form a super-state, commanding troops able to impose its will on recalcitrant nations forcibly. .Such an organisation would possibly be advantageous, but the League’s covenant did not contemplate anything of the kind. The League’s only aim was to render war less probable, contemplating coercion solely in the event of any member plunging into war without allowing the League Council or International Court to investigate the casus belli. Otherwise the members’ independence and sovereignty were entirely untouched at the Geneva meeting. Its chief success arose from encouragement and international co-opera-tion in the free, open discussion of world problems which threaten the maintenance of peace. Undoubtedly the’ conference did a great deal to assuage the bitterness of war created particularly among the small Powers in Central and Eastern Europe, through the freedom of intercourse and the removal of misunderstandings. Moreover, the (foundations had been laid in the direction of international co-operation relating to health, transit, and the establishment of an international court of justice. “I notice,” said Lord Robert Cecil, ‘‘that Australian statesmen emphatically repudiate the idea of admitting Germany to the League. Possibly Australia does not realise the urgent need for the pacification of Europe like those residing therein. Nevertheless, I am convinced that real peace is the most urgent need, and it is unobtainable without the wholehearted acceptance of the League, the efficiency of which directly depends on the inclusion of the world’s great nations. Germany’s inclusion at present may be impossible. If so, this is a great misfortune, which, in my judgment, every patriotic Britisher ought to do his utmost to remove at the earliest possible moment.”