The Timaru Herald TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 1934. THE CHALLENGE FROM CHACO.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19835, 26 June 1934, Page 8

The Timaru Herald TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 1934. THE CHALLENGE FROM CHACO.

Three months ago the special commission sent by the League of Nations to the Chaco, in order to endeavour to bring to an end the disastrous war between Bolivia and Paraguay returned to Europe carrying a draft settlement it had suggested of the points in dispute. The Bolivian suggestion for further negotiations led to an exchange of views between the two countries under the auspices of the Commission, which made it clear that their serious differences of opinion still subsisted, and that the chance of success for the negotiations were so small as not to warrant the further presence of the commission. In other words, the representatives of the League of Nations, who had journeyed all the way from Geneva, in an endeavour to convince two minor Powers of the futility of war, were politely invited to go back to the League and tell the people in Geneva to mind their own business. Yesterday the cable messages said that thousands of Paraguayan soldiers were reported on Saturday to have been trapped and slaughtered by Bolivian artillery Are. This came as the climax to a seven-day Paraguayan drive against Fort Ballivian, the Bolivian stronghold in the Chaco Boreal. Communiques issued by Paraguay and Bolivia indicated that the fighting was the most terrible in the two years of jungle war. Manifestly other and more drastic measures must be enforced against these belligerent peoples. Thousands of lives have been sacrificed in the past two years in South America because private armament firms have been permitted to sell arms to whom they will. Every effort has been made by the League of Nations to bring Bolivia and Paraguay to their senses, but entreaties, appeals and arguments have availed nothing. Nothing remains then than to enforce an arms embargo which will make it impossible for both combatants to continue their futile struggle. It is one of the chief counts in the case against private property in arms factories that it stimulates inevitably the exploitation of war. A business man must desire to do business; and so long as the manufacture and sale of death-dealing weapons is tolerated by Governments and by public opinion, those engaged in this traffic will naturally resort to every legitimate device to sell as many lethal weapons as they can. Sufficient evidence lias been submitted for the information of the League of Nations to convince the enlightened world that the peace of the world will not be safe until the manufacture of arms is taken out of the hands of private enterprise. The conscience of the nations is being quickened by the world wide protest. The following extract from The News Chronicle speaks for itself: Whether the Clergy Pensions Institution should sell its £IO,OOO holding in Vickers. Ltd., will be discussed at the annual meeting of the Clergy Pensions Board, which controls the institution. Several members of the Board feel that It is incompatible with Christian principles to possess armament shares. Following the annual meeting of Vickers, Ltd., the Board became very uneasy about its large holding of stock. As a result, an official of the board had an Interview with a director of the firm. The points raised in the discussion were: Vickers advertising of their armaments in Germany during the Disarmament Conference. Vickers’ investments in foreign armament firms. The £IO,OOO holding was acquired forty years ago, when the institution was more like an ordinary commercial insurance company, and public opinion on the subject was very difficult from what ft is to-day. Strangely enough, although the most conclusive evidence has been presented to the League of Nations and other investigating commissions of the activities of armament firms and their representatives, the Prime Minister actually took to task a deputation of the Women’s International League, for including in their petition to the Imperial Government details of evidence given before the Committee of the League of Nations, of the activities of those interested in the manufacture of arms. As a matter of fact these accusations were actually included in the body of the committee’s report. It is difficult to appreciate Mr Macdonald's attitude. Did he deny these charges? Some of them are matters of common knowledge; some have been established publicly by notorious scandals like the Shearer case. The Committee itself cast no doubt on them. It cited them as the “objections which are in general raised to untrammelled private manufacture.” Plainly the Imperial Government ought tq realise how far on this issue they are falling behind public sentiment. The futile struggle in the jungle of Chaco could be ended without much delay if the combatants were denied supplies of arms and munitions. The proposal before the Clergy Pension Institution to sell their Vickers shares may seem a small matter in itself. Its significance is that the only criticism which a vast body of British opinion will make on this proceeding is that it ought to have been done long ago.