PEACE PRIZE COMPETITION.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18084, 22 November 1924, Page 13

PEACE PRIZE COMPETITION.

NEW ZEALANDERS PLACED

(Auckland "Star”)

' Most of the English papers anuouliving, the result of the prizes offered b.v Mr Edward Filene, of Boston, U.S.A., in ■ connection with the British Peace Award Competition,; only gave the winners of the first prizes—-£ 1000 to Mr B. I’. AAaller, an Irishman, £260 to Miss Freda NATiite a Londoner, anil mirabde dictu —to Mr Norman Angell himself the third of £IOO only. Thero were 1,700 conipetitiors, to four of whom were given £SO, to ten were awarded £25, and to twenty £lO each. ■

In view of the fact that Dominions were handicapped by time and distance, it is entirely to the credit of New Zealand that two prizewinners of £25 were from our Dominion, and the . excellent place they took is all the more pleasant to our amour propre in that theirs are the only Dominion names appearing so high up, no other Dominion appears in their class or higher, and that in what might be called the £lO consolation prizes, the the only Dominions even, in the prize list are two in number cue from South Africa —the Rev. Ramsden Balmforlh Iby the way, a man already well i known in public life ill the Union and I Ml* L. F. Gibbon of Hobart, tiro result | is all the. more highly satisfactory to [ New Zealand and it is besides to be noted that all the winners of the big ! prizes were in England lor the three i months available to < ompetitors. Aet- ! ually Mr Philip Kerr, the very brainy young man who was the star among . Mr Lloyd George’s galaxy of geniuses functioning in the Government huts ni the purlieus of Downing Street, is classed' lower than two New Zealand prize winners —Professor J. B. Conliffe and Mr Horace Belshaw, both by ..the.way' of Canterbury College. | Mr Belshaw postulates that the root ! causes of the late war were: The' : seizure of territory such as Alsace and i Lorraine, whereby national auinities were ignored; economic Imperialism; the-incomplete attainment of nationality; competition in armaments; and the existence of entangling alliances. The effects of -the war, which any plan must, remedy, were: .the dostruct- : ion,of old-economic unites, and overseas commerce languishing industry through shortage of raw materials consequent 'Oil reducing. purchasing pop or and credit, such conditions being accentuated by insistence on impossible: reparations payments, the occupation arid control of important industrial areas, new tariff inflated cuuencies and flunctuating exchanges as the result of war fiiiaiice; and a League of Nations possessing serious constitutional weaknesses and tied to an impossible treaty. . Mr Belshaw’s plan suggested the remodelling of the League of Nations so as to include Russia and Germany as members. The United States should he invited to state on "hat terms she Would be prepared to re-enter the League, with a view to remodelling the Covenant accordingly. The constitution of the League should he remodelled, to give it greater elasticity and to prevent the Council of the League from remaining a there instrument of the i'hree allied Powers. He suggested—here his scheme, shows its anticipation of the Dawes scheme—that an International Repar- ■ -tions Commission of neutral economic be called in to determine 'Germany's capacity to pay and the. inethods" and conditions of payment, Great Britain to forego all claims to reparations conditionally upon the acceptance. of the findings of the Coin-, rtffi.ssion by the Powers concerned, particularly France. ' Great Britain should forgo all claims to inter-Allied debts subject ;to acceptance of the a bote jj-nd to .the. removal of. kuch hindrances to ■ recovery as the. cccupatiori qf. the Ruhrrtetc., and the United * States -should’- .be invited to state on what- terms she would forego her own claims. Intej'luitiqnal loans should bo floated .to „eri.able sfioji countries as Germany to reform Their currencies, such assistance to be conditional 1 pon the adoption of means to stabilise such currencies, and exchanges in accordance with plans submitted bj r .a commission of experts, and in the case of France and Germany upon the evacuation of the Ruhr.

Mr Belsliaw advocated loans to Germany and Russia for industrial purposes, subject to certain; safeguards. In order te remove existing hindrance to trade in the shape of tariff, etc., a conference of Eastern and Central European Powers-should be called to restore pre-war economic units by means of customs unions, trade agreements, etc. Where there is good reason to believe that the redistribution of territory in .Europe under the Treaty of Versailles. is■ unsatisfactory, is likely to endanger European peace, or where the •administration of European territory by the 'League lias resulted in complaints from the inhabitants, a neutral Commission should investigate and report to the League with a view to remedy. Subject to a certain minimurn of agreement on LliCi part of France Great Britain should enter into a defensive alliance with France '.gainst possible German aggression for a number of years. The writer believed such aggression to be a verv remote contingency, but such guarantee would allay French fears.'

The writer advocated a further disarmament conference, any financial or other assistance- or guarantee given by Great Britain to be conditional upon a certain minimum of disarmament.