THE PEACE TREATY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXIV, Issue 17655, 3 September 1919, Page 5

THE PEACE TREATY

RATIFIED BY N.Z. PARLIAMENT.

MR. MASSEY REVIEWS PEACE

CONFERENCE

(Per Press Association.)

WELLINGTON, Sept. 2. In the House of Representatives this afternoon, Mr. Massey moved: "That this House of Representatives ol: New Zealand in Parliament assembled resolves that this House assents to the ratification of His Majesty of the Treaty of Peace with Germany as approved by plenipotentiaries at the recent.Peace Conference. He proceeded to say that the assembly of the Peace Conference was probably the most important event o£ the kind in the history of the world. It was easy to criticise the Treaty arrived at, but that was no.part oV nis duty. There were some points amongst many raised by great issues on which he had his own opinion. To 'chese he would refer later. He asked the House to consider the difficult problems raised and the enormous task the Conference had to undertake in finding, an equitable settlement of these problems—problems such as whether the Germans should be left with an army or navy, if so, how strong those forces should be. He believed the imposts put upon Germany by the Treaty were not greater than she could bear, nor had he great faith in the regeneration of the German spirit. He referred to the systematic manner in which she set about the destruction of Prenca industries, which had the effect of placing Germany in a better position from the point of view of a manufacturing country t"han her rivals. He did not regard the Germans as specially clever people, but for some rea_ sons as yet unexplained they were able to do some things better than we could. He referred to the dye industry, for instance, but he had every hope that the British people ere long would be in a position to successfully compete Avith the Germans on their own ground. The manner in which th- business of the Peace Conference was conducted was ' far from satisfactory owing largely to the language difficulty. Finally a system of commissions was adopted. These commissions did work,-then reported to the great Council of Five. Mistakes, of course, were made, but he was convinced: the great, mistake was that Peace was not dictated on German soil immediately after the armistice. The length of time that elapsed after the armistice gave Germany ground for the hope that the longer Peace was delayed the better terms they could make.. They accordingly adopted the "go. slow" policy in the hope that the wave of Bolshevism sweeping-over Europe would cause dissension amongst the Allies, to their profit. However,, they at last made up their minds to sign, and he made up his mind that he would also sign as representative o£ New Zealand, and this he at last was able to do. German power was to some extent broken, but he did not believe war was at an end. While they were sitting in Paris at the Peace Conference there were twenty.two small wars going on in various parts of the world because there were many people who only understood the argument of force and who could' only' be kept within their own borders by .force. . Statements recently made by 'Lord Jellicoe in the Dominion were a grave' warning and worthy of seri- ! ous consideration by the people of New Zealand. He favoured the idea of the League of Nations, but he did not believe it would put an end to war, and we must keep up our armies and navy, especially the latter, without which war could not be woja. It included, of ciurse, the mercantile, marine. He said this after paying due regard to the assistance rendered by America, Fiance and Japan. Our existence as a nation depended on the Navy, which must be maintained at a. proper , strength. What * that strength was was for experts to say, and he did not pretend to be an expert. The League of Nations was not complete protection against Avar, but it must be remembered that it was only in its infancy, and he thought Germany was going to settle down to be a respectable nation. He might be disposed to say "go and sin no more," but he was afraid there were other nations'only-waiting to repeat the conduct of the Germans in the hope that they would be more successful. It was therefore necessary to do something >.o discourage such outrages, and it was therefore necessary to punish Germany severely. Mr. Massey then proceeded to review at large the v/ork of the various commissions, dealing specially with the one with which he was personally connected —that of dealing with crimes committed during the war. He considered it proved beyond all doubt that Germany was responsible for the war, but when it came to deal with the heads of States, he found many delegates held the view that heads of States could not be made responsible to a criminal court. It was a strange doctrine to him, but finally an international court was agreed upon to try certain people for certain offences. The case of the Kaiser was different. * They had to be guided by the opinion ol! the great international Powers who were present at the Conference, ai)a it appeared from these opinions that the Kaiser could not be tried lor a criminal offence, but would be tried for a breach of the moral law of natrons, for which, if guilty, he could not be subjected to capital punishment, though, strange to say, some of the officers who carried out his orders could be. The Question of the amount of reparation which Germany would have to pay was most difficult, io determine, and the first commission for the purpose of fixing the amount had to be abandoned because it was impossible to determine mow much Germany could pay. Consequently a standing commission was set up, who would have to fix the amount of Geri many's liability by May next year. At rough guess , he thought our share would be between ten and twelve millions, which might take thirty years to get. There could be no question of immediate payment. He thought this money should go towards our soldiers' pensions' fund. Mr. Massey explained the Labour covenants' of" the Treaty which were designed to uplift Labour in many backward countries to the level of those enjoying better Labour conditions. An international conference would short-