“THAT STRANGE INFANT”

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20108, 29 March 1928, Page 3

“THAT STRANGE INFANT”

ATTACK ON THE LEAGUE REAL AND DISQUIETING MENACE. In the course of a striking editorial on the League of Nations, written on January 10, the London Daily Express says:—

“To-day the League of Nations celebrates its birthday. That strange infant, born of war’s agony and left on Europe’s doorstep by its parent, has reached the lusty age of eight years. It is perhaps a little inconsiderate that the runaway parent should dim the enthusiasm of the anniversary by offering to set up overseas in business for himself as a Peace Purveyor. But, on the whole, the poor relations who haunt Geneva will raise enough jubilations to make the child feel the importance of the occasion.

“The Daily Express is sorry that it cannot join in the felicitations. On the contrary, it feels that truth spoken on a birthday may secure a keener hearing because of its unusualness. And the truth is that the League of Nations is a real and disquieting menace to the British Empire. “That may seem unpalatable, but so would the warnings of a Thames Hood disaster have been if no disaster had taken place. The League is not unlike the Thames —picturesque, active, but carrying the menace of sudden death in its ebb and flow. “If America had remained true to its own creation, the story would have been a different one. As it is we stand guarantor to every pact, treaty, or understanding that Geneva, in its bubDlings, throws up on the diplomatic banks. We should withdraw from Geneva. There can be no compromise. We cannot afford to stand committed indefinitely to participaton in Europe's broils.

“All wars are disastrous wars, and the bond to which we have put our signature gives us no choice between participation or dishonour. There can be only one seat of government lor Great Britain and that is Westminster."