PLAIN “YES” OR “NO”

Waipa Post, Volume 44, Issue 3184, 31 May 1932, Page 7

PLAIN “YES” OR “NO”

“ A study of the recent course of affairs offers innumerable examples in confirmation of the theory that it is a failure *of moral and intellectual courage in facing facts which has held up progress more than anything else. Our committees and commissions, charged with formulating solutions for our difficulties, have been given terms of reference too far-reaching in character with a vague hope that this might shift the whole burden on to tehir shoulders. This has caused their reports to be unduly delayed and unduly long. I would like to see the experiment tried of preesnting committees with concrete questions and charging them with the moral responsibility, after weighing the evidence, ofl giving a definite answer, * Yes ’ or * No ’ to the single question: tion on which the machine of law is run. If a committee of international jurists had been obliged to answer ‘ Yes ’ or ‘ No ’ to t ehsingle question: ‘ls Japan breaking treaty obligations by such and such an action in China or Manchuria ’ the force behind such an answer would have exercised an enormous influence.” —Mr E. Raymond Streat, reported in the Manchester Guardian. ,