GLOOM & DEJECTION.

Wairarapa Age, 3 July 1936, Page 5

GLOOM & DEJECTION.

SOUTH AFBECAW DELEGATE

MOVES ASSEMBLY. J .< .Wii--. A ,Ir>isa

failure of fifty nations.

(Received This Day, 0.45 a.m.) GENEVA, July 1. Such an atmosphere of dejection has seldom overhung Geneva. The humiliation of delegates was fntensifled by Mr. A. C. te Water’s speech, which created the deepest Impression.

The 4 4 Morning Post’s ” Geneva cprrespondent declares that few speeches have so moved the Assembly, especially because of its passionate sincerity. Mr. Vernon Bartlett, jjn the ‘‘NewsChronicle” considers that no such open criticism of the Great Powers has been heard sinde the days of Dr. Nansen. Delegates shuffled uncomfortably when Mr. te Water, with effective irony, contrasted Sir Samuel Hoare’s proud lead in September with the powerlessness of fifty nations to protect the weakest among them and declared that there must come a time in international relations when resignation was insufficient and nations must have the courage to act.

The only gleam of humour since the Assembly opened came from M. Litvinov, who suggested that the League had not been invented merely to make the world safe for aggressors. It is generally agreed that' Mr. Eden performed a difficult task with dignified resignation. He did not attempt to conceal his own or the League’s humiliation. Mr. Eden was the only delegate to express sympathy with the Emperor Haile Selassie. '(ln his address to the Assembly, Mr. te Water said: 44 South Africa cannot subscribe to a declaration to the world which will shatter for generations international confidence and all hope of realising world peace. South Africa is prepared to maintain sanctions, which course alone will maintain the League as an instrument of security to its members.”)

* ‘The course of military events and the local situation in Abyssinia have brought us to a pein*- at which the sanctions in force are incapable of reversing the order of events in that country. Had the British Government any reason to believe that the maintenance of the existing sanctions or even the addition of other economic measures would re-establish the position in Abyssinia, then it would be prepared to advocate such a policy if the other members of the League agreed to join in its application. The British Government finds it impossible to entertain any such beliefs. In our view, it is only military action that could now produce this result.

“I cannot believe that in the present world conditions military action could be considered a possibility. Realities have to be recognised. The continuance of the sanctions at present in force can serve no useful purpose. At the same time, it is the view of the British Government that this Assembly should not in any case recognise Italy’s conquest over Abyssinia. Moreover, if the harsh realities of the situation must influence our attitude towards the measures we have adopted

they cannot in our judgment involve any modification of the view expressed of Italy’s action by 50 members of the League last autumn. “There remains the all-important subject of the League’s future. Are we to say, because we have failed on this occasion to make the rule of law prevail over the rule of force, that we are therefore finally to abandon this object! Certainly not. With such an objective as this before us, our endeavour must be centred upon the task of reconstruction. It is clear, however, that the lesions of the last fdw months must be embodied in practice. As regards the immediate future of the Assembly’s work, his Majesty’s Government is ready to join at any time in any work which this Assembly or any other organisation of the League decides shall be undertaken.

“It may be that some preliminary exchanges of view on the subject of the League’s future can usefully take place during the present session, but It is essential that all countries should have time and opportunity sufficient to consider in detail the problem that confronts them. There must, however, be no avoidable delay, and I suggest therefore that the time to get to grips with this problem should be at the Assembly in September.”—(British Official Wireless).