THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS

Southland Times, Issue 22948, 22 July 1936, Page 8

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS

SUCCESS OR FAILURE? INTER-CLUB DEBATE "That the League of Nations has failed” formed the subject of a debate in Everybody’s last evening between the Marist and Woodlands Debating Clubs. There was a good attendance present. The Marist Club, led by Mr A. Chiaroni, who was supported by Messrs T, J. Small and V. Bendall, took the affirmative and Woodlands, led by Mr W. Bell, supported by Messrs E. Hargest and J. Trotter, the negative. The Rev. Father Murphy presided, Mr M. Miller was timekeeper and Mr J. C. Prain acted as judge. Following the debate the Woodlands Club was the guest of the Marist Club at supper. Opening the debate Mr Chiaroni said that by failure he meant that the League had not attained the object of its foundation—the bringing about of peace. Following the Great War everyone blamed each other and the nations took refuge in making resolutions such as disarmament. The League was an ideal which the world was not ready to accept. The League was only as strong as the nations wished to make it. It had failed to face reality. League Worth While. Mr Bell said that before declaring any institution a failure it was necessary to weigh up the failures with any successes there might have been. He maintained that the League was not a failure; it was worth while. Collective security had failed because it had not been tried to any extent. There were weaknesses in the League, but if the League had failed, what of the individual efforts of the nations’ History was full of failures down through the ages. Armaments were responsible for all wars. He referred to the Great War and the strength of the armies. A total of £70,000,000 had been spent in armaments, 9,000,000 men had been killed and 30,000,000 wounded. The only ray of hope out of war was the League. It had the machinery if not to prevent war, then to make it less certain. From a humanitarian point of view the League had justified its existence. Mr Small said that the primary reason for the existence of the League was international peace. A most important point of its policy was disarmament. The nations had signed the Covenant and pledged themselves to act on it, but as yet there had been no general agreement to reduce arms. The nations had failed to honour their agreements and because of individual failures the League itself had failed. Mr Hargest maintained that the League had not failed. In its 16 years of existence the League had achieved great success, he said. It had considered 30 disputes and had administered justice and given satisfaction. There had been seven cases of actual fighting, and in only three cases had the League failed to bring about a settlement. Was it right to say the League had failed because of these three failures? The League had dealt an effective blow at illicit drug traffic and its work altogether had met with great success. Reaction Felt. Mr Bendall said there had been considerable reaction toward the failure of the League to maintain peace. The collective system of security had failed; no one had gained by it. There was no true sympathy between Europe and Eastern Asia. He quoted Article 16 of the Covenant, and said that the League had done nothing to protect Abyssinia from Italy, but its action had rather led to Italy’s withdrawal from the League. The League could not be regarded as a safeguard by potential victims. Great Britain supported the League, but recent actions proved that she was losing faith. Mr Trotter referred to the dispute between Japan and Manchuria and said that the League had been content to leave the dispute there; it had used discretion in saving the world from the posibility of another world-wide war. Had the League taken definite action in the dispute between Italy and Abyssinia, British ships would have had to do the attacking, but the League had wisely held aloof. By preventing wars among the small nations, the League prevented war among the big ones. Messrs Chiaroni and Bell replied and then Mr Prain took the platform. He congratulated the speakers on their handling of a difficult subject. The debate, he said, had been handled in the only way possible and the result depended almost on the summing up, the Marist Club winning by a small margin. Father Murphy thanked the members of the Woodlands Club for coming to Invercargill to take part in the debate and Mr Prain for acting as judge.