LEAGUE COVENANT

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20892, 23 November 1937, Page 8

LEAGUE COVENANT

ECONOMIC SANCTIONS Several influential letters have recently appeared in “The Times” objecting to the “economic sanctions" of the Covenant of the League of Nations, and particularly to any suggestion that a State member of the League, merely because it is peaceful and law-abiding, ought to receive, if attacked, any protection from the rest, writes Professor Gilbert Murray in “Headway.” Such protection, they point out, even if reduced to the most modest terms, cannot but offend certain strong and dynamic nations and thus impair the “universality” of the League, which can be much better assured by expelling from time to time any weaker nation which is in need of protection. The following slight amendments of the Covenant would, we hope, meet the desires of these critics. The High Contracting Parties, In order to promote International co-operation among the vital and wellarmed nations and to minimise the inconveniences attending such wars as they may find necessary, or desirable. By the abolition of international law and treaty obligations wherever they might interfere with the actual conduct of Governments,

By establishing due respect for force in the dealings of organised peoples with one another, and the prescription of such variety in the treatment of different nations as may accord with their respective armaments and vitality, By the suppression of all facts which may contravene the statements and obstacles which may thwart the will of the vital and well-armed nations, agree to this Covenant of the Reformed League of Nations.

Article X The members of the League undertake to respect and preserve the preparations and results of external aggression in all cases where the territorial integrity or existing political independence of a decadent or contented nation causes offence to one betterarmed or more vital. Article XI In case of any war or threat of war: it shall be the friendly right of each member of the League to inquire of the aggressor what country he desires to attack and what results he desires to obtain, in order that, by depriving that country of arms and supplies, they may take wise and effectual action to reduce the length of the war. Article XVI Should any member of the League, in disregard of its covenants under Articles XII, XIII, or XV, resort to war, it shall, ipso facto, be held to have proved itself a vital and wellarmed nation and shall be respected as such by all other members of the League, which hereby undertake to regard the nation attacked as prima facie weak and decadent and to subject it to the severance of all relations, diplomatic, .commercial, financial and personal:

Provided always that nothing in the above shall prejudice the right of members of the League to receive payment for supplies from the decadent nation so long as the supplies are not sent, or to assist in the plunder or dismemberment of the said decadent nation either during the war or after. If, which God forbid, the attack should prove unsuccessful and the war be prolonged, the other members of the League shall meet and reconsider their attitude towards the respective combatants.