THE PEACE CONFERENCE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14840, 18 February 1919, Page 5

THE PEACE CONFERENCE.

IDEALS OF THE NATIONS. ARMED FORCE IN BACKGROUND. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association) ' PARIS, February 15. Thie* draft of the League of Nations covenant was laid before the third plenary session. It was not attended by special surroundings. There was a small assemblage of the public at the Quai d'Orsay. Lord Malner was present. . M l . Olemencaan, wi*h chaiiacterisbijci brevity, cailled on President Wilson, who immediately read tlie draft, occupying! thirty minutes. President Wilson, m a • Subsequent speech, made an impressive statement of the ideals of the fourteen nations whose representatives unanimously approved of the draft. Other speakers were Signor Orlando, M. Bourgeois, M. Venizelos, Mr Barnes, and the Arabian, Chinese-, and Japanese delegates. - : All the speeches iwere brief, simple expressions of faith m, the scheme, with occasional hints at the possibility of amending detail when the scheme was fully under examination. President Wilson described the simplicity and elasticity of the constitution, and dwelt upon the importance of the labor provision to the laboring people of the world, who would come into the foreground of life. .He added s'ignifieanily: "We have -done ■with, annexation's of helpless peoples m -a suitable condition 'for 'annexation ; 'they are really 1 an obligation iipon us." .his 1 insistence ori the' riiandatory system. He added : "Aithctugh an .armed- force was m the background, it was m thte background."