WORLD CONFLICT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19024, 26 May 1936, Page 4

WORLD CONFLICT

THAT OR THE LEAGUE GENEVA OFFICIAL’S VIEW. LEAGUE UNION ADDRESS Exceptional interest was shown by supporters of the League of Nations Union last evening in an address delivered at the Parish Hall by Mr. Duncan Hall, member of the information sectiqn of the League of Nations secretarial at Geneva, on the implications of the crisis in international affairs arising from the attack on Abyssinia. Mr. Ilall made it clear that though the League programme seemed to have failed in this instance, its plan of collective security remained the sole -bulwark -of the world against a disastrous spread, of Aggression and the'consequent outbreak pt war. ‘ '• 1 -‘ ■■■.. • * • -

Introduced by Canon A. F. Hall, who mentioned that he had had several apologies from prominent- citizens, the League of Nations representative was received with warm applause by the large gathering. He opened his address with a reminder that wh at he would say did notfepresent in any sense the opinion of the League secretariat, but simply his Own private opinions. He realised that most of his hearers. were interested in an issue of deep concern to all parts of the world —the question of peace and war. Most people who thought or read at all were apprehensive about the future of their families and their country. That apprehension was widespread in South Africa .and Australia, as well as in New Zealand, he had found. The average man regarded the League’s efforts for peace as paramount and essential in ’its general purpose; and if war was not prevented, then there was a tendency to sweepingly condemn the League. . , .

, Mr. Hall pointed out to lug audience that from the ppjnt of view of the League officials, the League was located not in Geneva, but in the other capitals of the world. From those centres came the impetus that kept the League going, and- if there was a breakdown in the impulse, the machine -could not run. ; Criticism of the instrument, or the qumhine, was iiot justified,, he held, for its comparative failure was due to the failure of the nations to make full use of it.

The past six months had seen the League of Nations thrown prominently into the limelight,-and the apparent complete triumph of the aggressor nation in the Abyssinian war had caused many people to say that the League was finished. It was as if the people were ever finished with an affair of government. The League could no more give up than could those Who brought ordered government out of-.,.the ..feudal system of life in the medieval ages. If the League had failed, and was finished, it would not prevent what was bound to happen in the absence of government. Mr. Stanley Baldwin, speaking for Britain, had said that despite humiliating failure in this instance, ,it was unthinkable that they should not go on. The alternative was chaos.

The unanimity shown at (ienova in tho early days of October last, in the representatives of the £?> nations which are mein hers of the League. was without precedent in international polities, said Air. Hall. It was no convenient face saving agreement, hut a definite agreement inspired by complete unanimity oi opinion, clear-cut and convincing. There was an enormous amount, ol work done behind the scenes, and through the agency of the League radio station, a complete documentary system of communication wit'll all the capitals of ihr world, This in itself was an interesting chapter in the history of radio, when that force was used in mobilising coincident ly the opinion anil action ol practically the whole world, ami Canberra and Wellington were pm on the same footing, in point of time, with London and Paris. In New Zealand, there was not, a dissentient, voice raised against the application of sanctions against one ot the major powers engaged in the war. In only one case of the £3 nations involved had a Parliamentary Opposition recorded a vote of protest against the application of sanctions.

INSPIRED BY FEAR, Such an amazing unanimity among the signatories to the League Covenant was inspired by a great emotion, continued Mr. Hall. That emotion was fear—fear ol a. great world war. In 19.)1. the League hail been hied out for the fust lime in relation to the Ear East crisis. The results of that try-out was to make people think, and the 1935-36 action, ol ilu l League was the result of the thought inspired by the incidents of 1931. Abyssinia, the victim of the 1935 aggressors. was tlie last, unprotected independent. Stale, and public opinion was firm on the point that the ICO per cent breach of obligations, linked to aggressor against a weak nation, must, be checked.

It was realised that if aggression and violence were allowed to proceed to success. other potential aggressors in oilier parts of the world, ami more particularly in Asia, would believe that the League of Nations could not protect the defenceless and maintain the .status quo. The possibility ol a new war was imminent. The Rhineland disturbance of the status quo had shown in Europe the disintegrating effect upon treaty observation of the influence of the- Abyso.mail situation. t

Two main alternatives were presented r;y the present situation, said Air. ilall. jvitlier u must be, shown that collective security can he made to work, or ttie world would go back to the old system of perhaps uncertain treaties and the maintenance of a balance of power as between one group of nations and another.

Tor eight or 10 years after the formation of the League of Nations, it seemed hi many that war had somehow vanished mysteriously from the face of the earth. That was but human untyrej live years of prosperity anil peace was sufficient to convince the average man that the rest of the recorded history of the world must go on in exactly tne same way. Relative stability gave a false, sense of safety and peace, though the lesson of history showed' that. practically no generation prior to 1920 had been without a major war. Moreover, all the circumstances and influences that had caused those wars were still present in the world to-day. Since ]930. it had been recognised with great force that those influences were still at work, and ill nine cases with increased force. CHANGING CONDITIONS

Instability of economics, helped to make war a great possibility of the future, while on the- other side the greater speed of communication must weigh heavily. Geographical facts were regarded before the air age as having certain established relation to tiic problems of defence and aggression. Suddenly, with the coming of the air age, the whole fabric on which the old systems of thinking militarily and nationally had been disorganised, and no one could possibly foresee what influence the coining of aviation would have on the history of the world. In Australia the effects of aviation were already being felt, and Darwin was .becoming the chief port of entry for .m important, arm of transportation. Eminent travellers, now approached Australia’s cities through an empty continent. instead of seeing Australia from a lirst contact with the cities, 1 They tool; back with them, rightly or wrongly, the view t.liai a great continent was vacant except for its merest, fringes. What, had happened to Australia, inspiring keen interest in the fate of the Malay Archipelago and the Dutch East Indies, had also happened to England. The English Channel, behind which had been built up the. whole fabric ol Empire, bad been reduced to (lie size of a, ditch by the developments in air transport. Britain was not, only open to attack herself, hut was seriously weakened in her capacity lo render assistance to her friends abroad.

MOH SITUATIONS. Psychological instability had been ei;eai,ed by this .new shrinking ol frontiers, cojituiuod Mr. I,lull, and Ini' ther emphasised by the devclupmo.nl ol radio. Ii was possible by the use ol radio to create mob situations, robbing ihe individual of his sense of responsibility, and surrendering initiative to the self-appointed leader. This entirely unforeseen development in the radii) field was but one of a number of disiiitergrating and disruptive elements now present in the world, which made it imperative that some collective agetu-y should be created and maintained to mobilise the forces of. reason arid stability.

. Canvassing the possibility of the League failing in its objective, Mr. Hall said that nationalism in defence 1 and trade would return, and international relations would fall into a state of anarchy. There might be a tendency to buy oil' the aggressor, by recognising and legalising what had happened in the Ear Last and Abyssinia, but thal would create a siltiaturn in which an uneasy peace would last hut a short time. A process would he .started which would inevitably end in a complete change of the status quo in territorial distribution. KE.MAKIXO THE WOULD MAP. On the other hand, resistance to aggression unquestionably would lead to war, and possibly to a world war, also leading to a redistribution of territory and the remaking of the. map of the world. If, on the other hand, collective security could he made to work, it would he of the utmost importance to the British common tvenlt It of

nations. Jus; at present, a majority of the nations of the earth were prepared to co-operate with Britain arid her sister nations in an effort to maintain the status quo. He did not suggest that the selfish view was the moral view, hut In- pointed mu that there could be immure favourable time Ilian the prc-sein I'm- tin- British commonwealth iu tin- e.-tablishmriii of a system of law ruling mu changes by violence. The British would have to be prepared to pay some price I’m- the supremely important boon of maintaining the peace. But that price could be met at a cost infinitely lower than the cost id' war.

A DimtTLT PATH. Ju concluding his address, Air. Hall observed that though ii was possible to see a logical enur-.e through the troubles of tin- next decade, the actual walking through that path uAmld he very dillicull, and we should he verilucky to come through it unscathed. There could he no denying that in some countries the altitude towards war was inlluenred by certain I'ircuiustances and characteristics which were not present in New Zealand. Nevertheless, there was always a possibility that at some time, under stress of excitement, even paeifieally-inc lined people such as New Zealand might play curiously with the emotional excitement of getting into a fight. There were instances in New Zealand’s history which illustrated this fact, the. spirit that broke out in the Auckland riots was just under the crust in human nature, yet the forces of biology itself seemed to work in the direction of the League of Notions objective. If they did not, human society could not have advanced to its present stage. No question which faced the world was of importance in comparison with the question of peace, in its ultimate effects. 'Mr. Hall closed his address amidst applause, and in dealing with queslions, agreed with a questioner that it was to some, extent true that peace, or war in any country was determined by a comparatively few men. lie pointed mil. however, that tlie* recent crisis could nol have arisen hut for the tendency of people under tension to put themselves iu a condition of emotion in which they unreservedly accepted what their leaders told them.

Replying to another question. Mr. Hall stated that sanctions could only bo elVecHve if there was absolute certainty of application. In the case of Abyssinia, (■hero was no certainty of application against the aggressor: had there been absolute certainty of the sanctions being put on the aggressor, there would have been no aggression, he claimed.

“Mr. Hall has given us Ihe greatest incentive to aggressive Christianity as one could have, declared Canon Hall, in tendering the thank's of the gathering to Mr. Hall, Ihe vole of thanks being carried bv acclamation.