The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. TUESDAY, JUNE 15, 1926. HELPING THE LEAGUE

Southland Times, Issue 19896, 15 June 1926, Page 6

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. TUESDAY, JUNE 15, 1926. HELPING THE LEAGUE

People who believe in the value of an enlightened public opinion as a means of averting armed conflicts between nations cannot afford to ignore the League of Nations Union, the aim of which is to make the League a living organism with its roots driven deep down into the masses in all parts of the globe by the dissemination of information about the League and its acts. Although newspapers all over the world devote a considerable amount of their space to the doings of the League of Nations, it is a fact that only a few people study the news with sufficient attention to obtain an understanding of its significance. Most people who are asked about the League of Nations will reply with some details about the latest sensation from Geneva suggesting that this alliance of the nations has run into another obstacle and has proved' how difficult it is to induce the powers to agree amongst themselves. They do not seem aNe to mention any of the things done by the League, things which could not have been accomplished by any other instrument forged by man for the settlement of disputes between the peoples of the world. People are too prone to condemn the League of Nations because it has not eliminated all the evils of the old methods of diplomacy and because it has not been able to kill the suspicions and hatreds that were intensified by the War. In future years the work of Woodrow Wilson will be given a greater value than it now has and the historians who will write after all the dust of these unsettled years has settled will understand how great a difference was made to the progress of the League in its first years when Wilson, breaking down during his campaign in the United States against the League’s foes, left his country to be led away from the League by his political enemies. This League of Nations was designed to act as an instrument for the correction of the faults of the Versailles Treaty and it will yet achieve that object, but in the meantime it has had to work against the influence of diplomats who could not realise that new methods were demanded by the new relationship inspired by the League of Nations. Quite recently the first evidence of this change was given in striking fashion. Sir Austen Chamberlain, after his brilliant success in connection with the Locarno Pact, was heading for Geneva committed in some way to support Spain, and involved in moves that meant altering the constitution of the Council of the League when Germany was admitted. France’s influence was strong in these proposals, but public opinion in Britain became articulate and the British representatives went to Geneva with but one object in view: to make way for Germany by some compromise which would be acceptable to the Germans. It was no longer a case of the Allied powers making their arrangements and going ahead; public opinion had halted the diplomats in full career and even if it meant the withdrawal of Spain and Brazil, the achievement was worth the price. This evidence of the manner in which public opinion can be focussed on to international questions is significant, but we have to recognise that to be of value public opinion must be informed, and in this connection the League of Nations is doing splendid work. To-night a meeting is to be held for the purpose of establishing a branch of the Union in Invercargill, and it is to be hoped that the efforts of those enthusiasts who are behind this move will be successful. The Union is not an ornamental body, and it is not exclusive; it is all embracing and designed to do useful work. The branch requires a small but an energetic executive which will be able to further the work of the Union and in so doing develop that body of public opinion which is the real foundation of the League of Nations, the most hopeful expression of the Will to Peace yet but before the eyes of Man.