LEAGUE OF NATIONS HAS WORK TO DO.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17653, 28 September 1925, Page 7

LEAGUE OF NATIONS HAS WORK TO DO.

i KING COMMENDS IT TO ALL CITIZENS. I By T. BUXTON (Dominion Organiser). The League of Nations came into being at the end of April, 1919, in the Banqueting Hall of the Quai d'Orsay [ in Paris during the plenary session of the Peace Conference. After the ratification of the Peace Treaty in which the covenant was embodied, the | League, in January, 1920, entered on the plenitude of its power. ( The framing of the League of Nations covenant was the first piece of work put through by the Peace Con--1 ference. The first meeting of the Council was held on January 16. 1920, and the meeting held last December . was the thirty-second. The original allied signatories numbered tliirty-one, of whom three never ratified the treaty, and therefore never became members of the League, and in addition there 1 were thirteen neutrals. China never ' signed the Treaty of Versailles, but did 1 sign and ratify the Treaty of St Germain, which embodied the covenant, as did a-lso the treaties with Hungary and Bulgaria. : The total number of League members at the opening of the first Assembly in 1920 was forty-two. At the fifth assembly held in September of last 3’car the members numbered fiftyfive. The most notable absentees at that date were the United States, German)-, Russia, Mexico, Turkey and Egypt. The British Empire is represented by seven nations, namely, India, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, the Irish Free State, and Great Britain. No other Power has more than single representation. The object of the League is to promote international co-operation and to achieve international peace and security. New Zealand was the first nation to sign the covenant through her representative, Mr Massey. The structure of the League is composed first of the Assembly, which consists of not more than three representatives sent by each State signing the •covenant. The Assembly meets at Geneva on the first Monday in evtery September and sits for about a month. Besides the Assembly there is the Council, which meets at least four times a year. Permanent places on the Council have been assigned to Great Britain, France, Italy and Japan and six non-permanent members arc elected annually. At the last Assembly the six consisted of Belgium, Spain, Brazil, Sweden, Uruguay and Czechoslovakia. The Council generally sits at Geneva, but once a year it meets ; n some national capital such as London. Paris, Rome or Brussels. The cost of the League is just under £900.0(10 a year, raised by contributions from the fifty-five States on a basis similar to that of tbe postal union. New Zealand’s share amounts to a littic under 2d per head per annum. The League also is responsible for the international labour organisation and the permanent court of international justice. The League has already sc ft Jed six disputes, namely, the Vilna question, the Aaland Islands dispute, Upper Silesia, the boundaries of Jugo-Slavia and Albania, Memel and Ivorfu, while the difficult question of the boundaries of Iraq has been referred to the Council of the League by both Great Britain and Turkey. The League is under an obligation to formulate plans for the definite reduction of armaments and to prevent the evils attendant on the private manufacture of munitions. On the business side it has dealt with such difficult questions as double taxation, fiscal evasion, false trade marks, unjust discrimination against foreign nationals and commerce, arbitration clauses in commercial contracts, communications and transit, port dues and use of warehouses, through travelling on railways, and the. through registration of luggage, as well as through contract notes for goods. Jt has simpli- l fled passports, considered the reform of the calendar and has. according ; to a high authority in the British busi- > ness world, done more for business men i in a month than could have been achieved in fifty years of the old me- c thods.

The League, through its health organisation. has taken steps for the prevention and control of disease. *ln this organisation Russia, Germany, and the United States have co-operated. It dealt with the typhus outbreak in Europe and has investigated malaria and epidemics in general. Sanitary conventions have concluded between different nations by which preventive measures are to be taken against the spread of diseases from one country to another. In humanitarian work it has repatriated 427,?586 prisoners and others who were lost during the war. It has extended relief to some 150,000 Russian refugees who fled from the Bolshevik government and it extended help to Armenians and others who lied from Turkish rule. Tt has dealt with such questions as the opium traffic, the traffic- in women and children, slavery, and intellectual co-operation. Under its mandate system the backward nations of the world are placed under the care and protection of stronger and more advanced peoples. It has also extended protection to minorities in countries composed of different races. Eighteen nations have signed the optional clause, of the international court under which they agree not t<:> go to war with each other but to refer all disputes to the court or other approved body lor arbitration. The League has now been in existence for five years. Its record is one of which it may well be proud and it has laid secure foundations for advance in the future. The League has unqualified support from the highest, authorities. His Majesty th.e King says: T commend the cause to all citizens of my Empire. Millions of British men and women stand ready to help if only they be shown the way. The Right Hon Stanley Baldwin says:—“The League should be given the unabated support of all the British members of the League, as a valuable instrument of international peace, and as the sole available organ for the harmonious regulation of many international affairs.’’ Mr Ramsay Macdonald says:—“My own view is that if the League fails, nothing but time stands between Europe and a war so terrible that the last was only a rehearsal on a small and humane scale.’’ The Hon J. G. Coates says:—“ The aims and objects of the League of Nations Union have my full sympathy: and which make an appeal to all who have the welfare of mankind at heart. - ’ “There are only two way s in the world,” says General Smuts. “ the wav of force and the. way of understanding. We have proved the way of force to the utmost, and have seen it. reduce the world to a mass of ruin—we must end war. or war will end us. The world’s greatest effort, towards world peace is the League of Nations.”