THE Wairarapa Age MONDAY, MAY 25, 1936. SEEKING A WAY OUT.

Wairarapa Age, 25 May 1936, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MONDAY, MAY 25, 1936. SEEKING A WAY OUT.

Now that he has had his way in Abyssinia, Signor Mussolini is declared to be anxious, not only to re-estab-lish good relations with Britain, but to assist in placing the League of Nations on its feet again. His new attitude follows quaintly on the vicious campaign against Britain that was lately being waged in Italy’s strictly controlled Press. No doubt, however, the Duee sincerely desires the establishment of quiet and undisturbed conditions in which he may concentrate on the consolidation of the gains made by his country in what he is pleased to call a colonial war. It seems altogether unlikely that any serious attempt will now be made by the League to weaken Italy’s grip on Abyssinia. At most there will probably be no more positive action in that direction than a refusal to recognise Italian sovereignty over the conquered territory. It is very far from being true, however, that the way is open to a hopeful reconstitution of the League. Rather it must be said that Italy has played her part in bringing about a state of affairs in which hardly anything worth speaking about is left of the system of collective security.

In any attempt that may now be made to reconstitute the League and re-establish the system of collective security, much more is likely to depend on Germany than on Italy. The mere fact of German readmission to the League, it has been said, would give the world greater hope than for years past. It seems not unlikely that it is on the question of this readmission that wisely-directed international efforts may centre in the immediate future. Germany, like Italy, has violated treaties, but already British policy evidently has been influenced greatly by a belief that Germany acted with a measure of excuse to which Italy could lay no claim. It is recognised very widely that the treaties by ■ which Germany was bound and which she has violated, were bound to be revised sooner or later. A very much better international atmosphere would have been created had these treaties been revised by voluntary agreement, 1 but even now it is not at all difficult to understand why Britain pressed for sanctions against Italy, who was held to be utterly in the wrong, but urged, not sanctions against Germany, but if possible negotiations and a new peace. So long as Germany is outside the League there will be an obvious threat of war in Europe on the greatest scale. Big and little nations are straining their resources in building up armaments. Germany regards the FrancoSoviet Pact with bitter resentment as an encircling alliance directed against her, and on the other hand is accused of planning to extend her frontiers eastward at the expense of Russia and smaller nations. Europe is more than ever a powder magazine and an ultimate explosion can be averted only by voluntary and comprehensive agreement between all the nations concerned. Grievances must be redressed and fears and suspicions abated if there is to be any hope of future security. Attainment of the goal of collective tecurity need not be prevented unless some nations continue to insist, as they have in the past, on pursuing narrower and more limited aims.