The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1924. ARBITRATION TREATIES.

Southland Times, Issue 19357, 24 September 1924, Page 4

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1924. ARBITRATION TREATIES.

Italy and Switzerland have joined the small circle of nations that have definitely put to one side the use of war as a means of arbitrament in disputes between them. Britain and the United States have for many years been at peace with each other, and have settled differences through arbitration without the faintest hint of war rising. There have been occasions when some particularly ticklish problems have risen to set the diplomats of the two nations at long and earnest debate, but the presence of the Arbitration Treaty has been enough to preclude any thought of armed action, and as a result, in spite of the efforts of a few firebrands, the two peoples have lived and competed with each other in surer harmony than any other pair of nations could boast. Switzerland has owed her immunity to her mountain barriers, and to her steadfast refusal to become involved in the international turmoil of Europe, but during the Great War there were occasions when the Swiss people were in danger of being divided by their sympathies with the belligerents, and doubtless, this fact hag urged the Swiss Government to sign a treaty which otherwise would be nothing more than a gesture designed to impress the Powers assembled at Geneva. Switzerland has been so successful in eschewing war that such a treaty as that reported by Signor Solandra could be of minor importance; but as a means of putting before the nations the means by which the League of Nations may be strengthened, this Treaty is of great value. Switzerland will probably extend the scope of her arbitration scheme until she is protected by agreements of this character with all her neighbours, and as the League’s Court of International Justice is appointed the final arbiter, the effects of her activities can be readily understood. If other nations follow her example and make similar arrangements with the nations on their frontiers, there will quickly be built a federation in which arbitration for the settlement of international disputes will be an obligation, so solemn that no Government will dare to think of evading it. As tlie number and scope of these treaties increases the League of Nations will be buttressed by the antiwar feeling these international contracts encourage, and then the disarmament problem will enter a new, and a brighter phase. So far as Italy and Switzerland are concerned, this treaty is not of great moment, because it puts into writing something which has been tacitly understood for many years, but by its association with the League of Nations the treaty is of prime importance to Europe, and to the world—it is a splendid gesture, ,