CHALLENGE OF VIOLENCE

Stratford Evening Post, Volume IV, Issue 127, 11 May 1936, Page 7

CHALLENGE OF VIOLENCE

League Of Nations Is Hope Of World. VIEWS OF MR H. D. HALL. Press Association —Copyright. Wellington, May 10. “The future of the world lies in upholding the principles of the Covenant of the League of Nations,” said Mr. H. Duncan Hall, a member of the secretariat of the League now visiting Wellington. “The very survival of the British Commonwealth,” said Mr. Hall, “depends upon the establishment of an effective collective system as the dominant force in world politics.” Asked whether he thought sanctions were likely to be dropped or continued, Mr. Hall said it was impossible to foresee what decision would be made by the League. “The reasons for the imposition of sanctions have not changed,” he continued. “It must not be forgotten that the purpose of sanctions is not punitive in nature. It is an effort to restore peace and uphold the law which has been broken. An act of war has been committed under the Covenant, not merely against a victim State but also against ail members of the League. “Whatever may have happened in a military sense in Abyssinia does not alter the fact that such an act has been committed against the League. The purpose of sanctions is to bring about a just peace. It is of enormous importance to all countries that desire to live in peace that the League’s strenuous efforts to see that aggression does not pay is made to succeed. If the lesson does not succeed, if it fails completely, or even if it is only partially successful, if it is an insufficient deterrent, then the world will be faced with the practical certainty of a breakdown of peace. “While the future is dark and the challenge of violence in the world is of serious portent to the British Commonwealth the Empire must look to the national defence of each unit and to the co-ordination of its defences as an Empire as a whole. Above all, if it hopes to survive as a commonwealth it must make a desperate effort to establish a collective system as the dominant force in world politics.”