PEACE DESIRED

Southland Times, Issue 22729, 4 November 1935, Page 7

PEACE DESIRED

GREAT DEMONSTRATION MEETING IN ALBERT HALL PRIME MINISTER STATES THE ISSUES (British Official Wireless.) Rugby, November 1. In the midst of a vigorous General Election campaign, leading members ot all parties were represented at a great non-party peace demonstration, when 6000 people attended a league Nations Union meeting in the Albert Hall. The presence on one plattorm just before a General Election of the representatives of all three parties was referred to by the Archbishop ot Canterbury, who occupied the chair, as being an event of almost unprecedented significance. He directed the attention of Governments throughout the world to this demonstration of national unity on the grave issues now before the League of Nations. , The meeting unanimously pledged itself to support the League in measures deemed necessary to maintain the provisions of the Covenant by collective security. ■ Lord Cecil said there was no possibility of League failure in the present crisis except the possibility of want of resolution on the part of the League Powers. ~ Sir Austen Chamberlain said it was neither affection for Abyssinia nor dislike for Italy that brought him to the meeting. It was his deep conviction that if treaties solemnly signed, covenants freshly undertaken, and pledges to pursue the peaceful regulation of disputes between nations, and to abjure war as an instrument of national policy, could be broken, it was idle to pretend that peace would anywhere be secure. Nations would go back to savagery, and there would be no faith between them. Scope of League. Earlier in the day the Prime Minister, at a meeting of the Peace Society, said that by the law of the Covenant they were bound over to make peace, but they could not make peace alone. It took two to make a quarrel, and it would take all to make peace. Referring to the scope of the League, he said: “I am an impenitent patriot, but England is no less England because she is a member of the League. The League will grow in strength as we respect the individuality of the. nations which compose it. I am certain there ; are millions of Americans who are watching with lively sympathy our efforts to make the League an instrument of world peace. Germany left the League. We regret it, but the future is open, and I trust a solution may not be impossible. Japan is a world Power which turned her back on the rest of the world. We must look fairly at her reasons, for they lie deeply in criticisms of the League. If the League only exists to keep things as ■ they are it will become desiccated and crumble into dust, but the change must ' come primarily from within the League. It must be ordered. evolution. The League is living and it gains adherents. ■ Not long ago it was strengthened by the advent of the Soviet Union. Old relations with old friends are being put to a strain, but they cannot be fundamentally impaired. There are elements in France that have not seen eye to eye with us, but there is solidarity between the two Governments as loyal members of the League, and that is what really matters. The dispute between the League and Italy is real, but it is not more real than our friendship. We believe that Italy is rashly departing from her own great traditions, but we are moving in no spirit of national antagonism against Italy. In being ’ true to our pledged word to the League we also wish to preserve our old friendship. We are bound over to make peace. It may not be an easy task, but we accept it.”