THE NEXT WAR

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20862, 19 October 1937, Page 8

THE NEXT WAR

HORRORS EMPHASISED ADDRESS TO LEAGUE UNION The annual meeting of the Timaru branch of the League of Nations Union was presided over last night oy the Rev. J. Baird, who intimated that the speaker for the evening, Mr Wilkinson, was unable to be present owing to his having contracted influenza. In outlining the aims and objects of tie League of Nations, the president said that they were here to proclaim with as much conviction ns ever their faith in a League of Nations as the only way to international order. All that had happened during the last three or four years simply emphasised the necessity for pacifically inclined nations to take the League system seriously and to throw themselves with determination into the carrying out of its principles. “As I see it, the League when its testing times came, was fooled and failed by the cowardice and wobbling of its great nation members," said Mr Baird. "The League system has been accused of being t' -ionary and unworkable, but perhaps we are being forced to-day to see that it is the only realism. I believe that British foreign policy, after these years of hesitancy, and in face of the sinister developments and threats of the last

few months, will be driven to realise that the wholehearted and determined honouring of its obligations under the League is the best means of Imperial defence. No country in the world, not even Great Britain can, single handed, defend its interests against a possible combmation of other Powers.”

Continuing the president said that every nation was bound to seek alliances for self-defence. In a word the balance of power system must operate. If given the leadership, the nation members of the League and the United States of America would rally to that system of self-defence which was a collective undertaking for the maintenance of international law against anarchy. "Do not the present signs point more and more to that as the inevitable way?” he asked. The 50 members of the League along with the United States had the power, and sooner or later they must have the will to say no to the barbarous proclivities of certain nations. Whatever the motives and interests involved at the time, it looked now like folly not to have comitered effectively, as was possible, the’ designs of Japan in Manchuria and Mussolini in Abyssinia. It might have been done without a shot having been fired. But with such lessons we may still learn the wisdom underlying the League Covenant. League as Peacemaker "However,” said the president, "we must not regard the League only as a maker and protector of law. We want to see the League in the light of a peacemaker. The only criticism I have of the League is that it has never done or never has been enabled to do anything on a big scale to bring together the nations of the world, member nations and non-member nations alike, to work out an agenda covering all matters —territorial, economic, trade, migration, etc.—with the purpose of having a new peace settlement in Europe and, if possible, in Asia, too. The British League of Matte is Union has been strenuously advocating such a movement for some time, insisting that if any government was under an obligation to take the leadership, it was Great Britain. It sounds platitudinous, I know, to talk about the co-operation of all for the good of each, but it is only sanity In a world where one or two nations suffering under a sense of injustice disturbs the peace of the whole. In a world unified in so many ways as the world is to-day, the problems of any one country Is the urgent concern of all. There is no use shutting our eyes to the fact that civilisation is in the throes of great changes and the fate of. civilisation depends upon whether they will be guided in a community spirit of mankind, or through the strife of arms. It was to obviate this that the covenant of the League was framed and the institution set up in the world. So what is before the world to-day is the ideal of the League or war. What it seems impossible to make the governments of the various countries realise is thrt considerable sacrifice is infinitely worth while to avoid the war that the next war will be.” Horrors of Next War Continuing the speaker said that there could be no illusions about the next war when they knew that millions of people were earning their livelihood in creating and amassing implements of destruction of the most terrible kind. Millions of kindly men who went home at night and kissed their wives and kiddies were engaged through the day under vow of secrecy in experimenting with means of death that would shock and shame the most primitive savage. The speaker referred to the concoction of poison gas, the unreckonable tons of arsnic componded in various forms, stored up and representing uncountable wealth in money, ready when the day came, for the extermination of human, animal and vegetable life anywhere and everywhere. Successful experiments were also being made with the bacteria for the spread of plague and disease. Law of the Governed “Perhaps after great areas of civilisation are turned into a desert the survivors will be more amenable to the spirit and the ideals embodied in the covenant of the League of Nations,” continued Mr Baird. “But the signs give us encouragement to believe in the

League. We are bold to believe that the League Is not just so much political machinery, but a living and growing organism, and that the forces in the human heart working for it are greater and stronger than the forces working against it. It may not as an instrument be perfect, but it is in line with the advancing forces of true civilisation, working for the extension of law against the rule of violence, the rule of law based upon the consent of the governed and supported by the organised opinion of mankind.” Election of Officers The election of officers resulted as follows: —President, Rev. F. H. Wilkinson; patrons, Messrs W. Thomas, F. J. Rolleston, Rev. Clyde Carr, M.P., and the Mayor, Mr P. C. Vinnell; vicepresidents, Messrs N. A. Moore, F. L. N. Tuck and Rev. J. Baird; secretary and treasurer, Mr F. Oxford; committee, Messrs Harris, F. Hilton, Ferguson, Rev. E. L. Williams, Misses Mills and R. Johnston; hon. auditor, Mr E. Darroch. A competition sponsored by the League and open to the schools for the 'best League of Nations poster resulted as follows:—Timaru Boys’ High School: E. J. Brown 1, K. Andrews 2, J. Arthur, special prize. Technical College: June Jackson 1, Maud Seyb 2, Marie Shepherd 3. A comprehensive vote of thanks was carried in recognition of the valuable work of Mr P. Rule for his kindly and constructive criticism of the competitors in the poster competition, Mrs F. Smith for work in the country district, to the Deacons Court of Chalmers Church for the '”.e of a room and the Timaru newspapers for their valuable services.