THE LEAGUE

Southland Times, Issue 21196, 24 September 1930, Page 8

THE LEAGUE

SUMMARY OF TALKS EXAMINATION NEXT MONTH * PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN As already announced, three final talks are now to be given on the League and its work. These talks will appear in the Wednesday morning issues of the Southland Tinies. They form a summary of the radio talks given during the winter months and are intended to prepare primary school boys and girls of Standards 5 and 6 for the simple examination in League matters to be held at the end of October. Pupils are advised to keep copies of these three talks, and by careful reading to fit themselves to earn the certificates to be issued by the local branch of the League of Nations Union. In summarizing, it will be necessary to quote largely from what has already been said. The main principles and facts will be given, and the union sincerely hopes that the widespread interest already evinced in the talks will be followed by the entry of a large number of candidates for the examination. Head teachers are respectfully asked both to urge their senior scholars to enter and also to give their candidates any necessary assistance in preparation. The three talks will appear in the issues of September 24, October 1 and 8 and entries will close on Friday, October 10. The date of the examination will be notified to teachers later. The League and The Union. The League of Nations is quite distinct from the League of Nations Union. The Union—we may call it the L.N.U. —is a society of citizens, men and women, such as father and mother, your teachers, your neighbours, joined together to learn and to tell others about the League of Nations. It is vitally important to the League that it be understood by t+ie men and women, and the boys and girls of the world. This is what is meant when we say that the League of Nations must be backed by a healthy public opinion: you and I must have an intelligent interest- in it if it is to be a success. ■ ' New Zealand a League-Member. New Zealand, is one of the fifty-four atates or nations forming the League. Does it not thrill you with pride to be able to say that the country of your birth with its comparatively small population has a right to send its representatives to the great meetings of the League and that its vote has equal weight with the vote of Germany, of Italy, of Great Britain? The League’s Work. The work of the League is many-sided: it is not merely a possible means of securing a war-free world j it exists chiefly to secure team-work or co-operation among the world-states in all matters that affect them in common —matters political, economic, financial, social, humanitarian, scientific, literary, legal, of labour, of transit and of health. The Greatest New Thing in the World. Arthur Mee, the children’s friend, and editor of the well known “My Magazine, says of the League, “It cannot be said too often, with so much talk of war still in the world, that the one hope that mankind has to-day is in the League of Nations. We cannot assure ourselves too often, with so much fear still about us, that the League is the greatest political idea the mind of man has ever conceived. Nor can we remind ourselves too often that the League is a practical working thing, shaping,a new world every hour before our eyes.” If we look at the League in the broad light of universal history, its formation has been the greatest constructive act ever achieved by masses of men organized as nations. The League is something entirely new, absolutely great, profoundly promising. The League Members.

The following are the names of the member-States of the League. I would like you to get a modem atlas—-your school atlas will do—and find their positions: Joined in 1919: Union of South Africa, Argentine, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, British Empire, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Italy, Japan, Liberia, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Persia, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Rumania, Salvador, Serb-Croat-Slevene State, Siam, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Uruguay, Venezuela, New Zealand; joined in 1920: Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, emburg; joined in 1921: Esthonia, Latvia, Lithuania; 1922: Hungary; joined in 1923: Irish Free State, Abyssinia; joined in 1924: San Domingo; joined in 1926: Germany. Early Attempts At World Peace.

All attempts at world peace in the past have failed. Why do we believe the League of Nations will succeed, in the failures of all previous schemes? You must understand that the world to-day is a different world because the Great War cleared away many obstacles to peace. No peace could be expected as long as some, great nations were arming and scheming to conquer the world or large portions of it. That is what Russia, Germany, Austria and Turkey were doing before 1914 and while they had that end in view there could be no friendly union' of the nations of the world, and no international peace based on justice. They wanted, not just relations with their neighbours, but domination over them. Five years later the powerful families and parties that ruled these countries had been deprived of their authority and the ground w/is cleared for the building of a world structure to maintain peace and justice. The League Promises Well.

In no former attempt at world peace has there been a group of free nations working in friendly co-operation, not only at keeping peace but in very many- important branches of life and government. Therein lies the great difference between the League of Nations and every other attempt. The League may fail, but the outlook is more promising than it has ever been before. The World Growing Smaller. Nations, almost in spite of themselves, have during the past fifty years been drawing together, and consequently if wars come, they must be far more destructive and terrible than in the past. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, when Sir Robert Peel was sent for from Italy to form a Government and become the British Prime Minister, he took as long to get home as Caesar would have taken in the century before Christ. Through all those ages there had been no advance in quick methods of travel. We who h*ve grown up in an age of speed—of trains, motors and aeroplanes—do not realize how very recently the world has been drawn closer by their development. A Prime Minister now, who happens to be travelling in Italy, could be summoned by wireless in a few seconds, and could reach London in a few hours. An aeroplane made its first flight in 1889 and the first half mile flight did not come till 1896; thirty-four years later Miss Amy

Johnson makes a solo flight from England to Australia. When William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, travelled from England to America, it took him at least three months. To-day the journey can be covered in four days. We in Southland can hear London’s Big Ben striking the hour: the inventor of the wonderful process that makes that possible is not" yet an old man: he was born 56 years ago and, as you know, his name is Marconi. As a result of these and many other inventions, trade and intercourse have grown very greatly between the nations, and we. are indebted to other countries for many of the commonest things we use every day. Then again every new discovery in science is the property of all. Marconi is an Italian, but wireless is used by all the world. Great pictures, great music, great books are the possessions of mankind. International prizes, like the Nobel Prize, left by a great Swede, are giveti for the finest achievements of men or women of any race. In all these ways we have cut across the bounds of nationality, and think of the nations as one: we are members of the world community. So it follows that trade and travel, discovery and invention, science and art are all helping to bring together civilized nations to help one another forward, instead of regarding themselves as rivals. These things have all caused the nations, even unknown to themselves, to prepare over a long period for the new ideal—a League of Nations. The Great War.

Yet in spite of this preparation, it needed the long drawn out agony of the world war to bring that League into being. The spark that lit the fire was the murder of an Austrian Archduke by a Serbian student. Austria and Serbia had been at enmity, and this murder led to a rupture between the two governments. Within a month, war had begun' between the two countries. European nations took sides, the war spread to Asia, to Africa, to America: it became a world-war. • Frightfulness. Within a few months of its outbreak it was very evident that Germany, the most powerful of our enemies, was determined to carry into effect a policy of frightfulness; that she was determined to win the war; that she would stop at nothing in order to win. Quite early in the war she employed bombing planes to wreck towns and maim people; she sent her U boats to cripple our allies’ shipping. In retaliation the British Navy very effectively blockaded the German ports and inflicted untold suffering on •■German parents and children by starvation. Good Out of Evil.

Yet out of all this horror was born a determination that such a happening should never occur again. The nightmare of the War with its unimagined horrors awakened the' nations to the evils of discord, confusion and anarchy; roused them also to the vital need for a better ordering of the relations between nation and nation on some better basis than fear-inspiring armaments and secret treaties, on a basis founded on reason and justice. We now eagerly work for and look forward to a world at peace—peace brought about, not by “outlawing war” or by “fighting militarism,” but by fostering and promoting international co-operation and working for international peace and security. The probability of success is greater now than ever

before in the world’s history,- for five-sixths of the people in the civilized world are officially banded together in solemn agreement that they will work for that end. ' President Wilson. When the World War was raging, Woodrow Wilson" was the President of U.S.A. He was a man of strong and bold imagination who insisted that a League should be formed by the nations and determined to do his utmost to bring it about. His words were very warmly welcomed. It is safe to say that had it not been for his brave word* at the time of the Armistice in November. 1918, the League would not be in existence to-day. President Wilson was in a position to state what all men were longing for. Many of the peoples of Europe were dominated and ruled by larger and stronger nations with whom they had little in common: to these peoples he proposed to give the management of their own affairs, or “selfdetermination” as it is called: this would lead to an increased number of States and nations and therefore to an increased need for a league of world-states. He brought with him to Paris a series of “Fourteen points,” the last of which stated the need for such a league, and it is due to his foresight and persistence that the Covenant or Treaty constituting the League of Nations was made the first chapter of each of the Peace Treaties with the countries against which we and our Allies had been fighting.