TEN YEARS OF THE LEAGUE

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 27, 31 January 1929, Page 2

TEN YEARS OF THE LEAGUE

MB BALDWIN'S FAITH. "If tiie State is to survive, the tiger must be eliminated," declared the Prime Minister on Friday night at the tenth anniversary meeting of the League of Nations Union, held in the Albert Hall. Mr Baldwin made a long and impressive speech on the past history of the League and its future place in (he world's life.

In the course of bis speech, the Prime Minister said: — In this audience I supjpjbse are gathered together as representative a body of Englishmen and Englishwomen as is to be found in this country, who are pursuing ideals of peace with heart and soul and.who would consider themselves typical of our people. I want you to throw back your minds thirteen years, and be honest with yourselves, as I am trying to be. Do you remember the shock that ran through England when the news came through, that the Germans employed poison gas? Can you remember bow long it was bofore we were on our knees praying for a west wind to drive our gas over the German lines? Do you remem'ber what! "our feelings were when the first open town was bombed, and how many of us were longing for the day when the big bombers would get over Berlin? I remind you of that because nothing could show more clearly the fatal and catastrophic fall the characters of the best suffer: under the influeuce of war. It shows us there is something very near the surface against which w e have to be on guard It shows us that our descent is not only from the ape; it is from the tiger.

PRESS AND POLITICIANS— A

GRATE RESPONSIBILITY.

It is true that mankind, in the infinite process of the ages, has learned that unless the tiger be nated in family delations, no family relations are possible, and for long it has not been customary for family quarrels to culminate in murder. It is to be apprehended that, if the State is to survive, the tiger must be eliminated. The ape in us has been fought largely tjhrough hstory with spiritual powers. The tiger has not. That is a difference worth remembering. The tiger instincts which are still there, as we all showed thirteen years ago, are ready to be summoned from their hidden lair

in a moment, and there are not two bodies of persons more potent to summon these ancient impulses than the politicians and the Press. So it is that the gravest responsibility to-day which rests- on any individual or any class for the f«Wre of this world rests upon the politicians and on the Press. Let them try from to-night to realise their responsibilities, and remember that it' is your duty to try to make lllem realise them. The tact Is that we have paid much too little attention iu the past to these tigrine impulses that ira. along the Pulbob deep down in human name H you think you are going to beat the things that' culminate in hatred and in war without a spiritual fight ia fore doomed to failure. lo Vnake avow with your Upß is not enough to sign a covenant, with your pen is not enough. You can only save yourself and the world by , a constant daily fighting against these old impulses, and in time you will win. ,„ . But if want to do something perfectly simple and easy that would Lily help, let me submit that from to-nighti onwards no member of the League of Nations Union shall add one drop to the foetid stream of insinuation and suspicion and the attribution of low motives to statesmen of your own country or other countries who are engaged on pacificatory work in this world. You in this League are missionaries, or you ought lb be, and as missionaries you should contact yourselves. I dislike intensely the w ord propaganda. It has had a had I- connotation since (the war. Be | careful with your propaganda. Dn-

less propaganda con.es from, a pure heart ami a single mind It is a

boomevang. You may think that I have spoken much, more during the time 1 have been in office about peace at home than peace abroad. Hat 18 true, but I Have done it largely because I believe that unless a country is at peace with Ittelf the weight or that voice and influence ta diminished in the councils ot he \ i iihink so much ol me world and 1 uuiut »"

spirit and of the voice Of our great 1 country that I want it to be heard, recognised, and acknowledged. No country that is not at peace in itself can work effectively for peace outside its borders. AN ALL ..Effl Blt A CIS CI 310 VEMK NT. The League of Nations must he all-embracing. It must be no preserve of what are vulgarly called pacifists on the one hand or equally vulgarly culled "jingos" on the other. No man is too good a patriot to be a member of the League of Nations Union, but the moment you lose sight of your high ideals and allow the use of your propaganda in such a way that it may be interpreted, as ■political propaganda—the people are very jealous—it will be far harder for you to bring about 1 that which your souls so much desire. The League of Nations has a great future before it. It has to fight scepticism. Scepticism in its place, for the examination ot T questions, is a very good thing. But when you have a task before you such as we have, we want more than scepticism; w e want faith. . Faith alone can remove mountains. Faith alone can see the goal that lies before it, and in faith alono can we carry on the drudgery of the day-to-day work amidst the din and dust and turmoil of this world's affairs; and buoyed up alone by faith, we hope that in time we or those who come after us will one" day plant our feet firmly in the everlasting paths of peace.