LEAGUE OF NATIONS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 156, 4 July 1934, Page 9

LEAGUE OF NATIONS

NEW ZEALAND’S PLACE “SWITZERLAND OF PACIFIC’’ ADDRESS TO WANGANUI BRANCH. “If the title of my address to-night confined me merely to a recital of the place New Zealand has taken in the League of Nations and of the part she has played, my speech would indeed be a brief one,” said the Ven. Archdeacon J. R. Young, when addresing the Wanganui branch of the League of Nations Union on Monday night, concerning the place taken by New Zealand in the League. “For, truth to tell,” he continued, ,r we have taken next to no part, and our contribution towards the solution of world problems has been i immently inconspicuous. i “But I have chosen instead to consider whether the future holds any opI portunity for New Zealand to play any useful part and to make any useful contribution to the affairs of the League. That we may be able to form any lopinion on such a question, it is first | wise that we should consider the reason for the League’s existence and "the I aims which it hopes to accomplish. This I has been very succinctly stated in two I phrases, ‘The League of Nations exists I for two purposes in the international sphere: (1) to get things done; (2) to I keep order.’ Effective Machinery Needed. “The need for the existence of some effective machinery for dealing with international questions, and settling disputes among people, has been growing increasingly acute during the past, half century, because the vastly improved means of travel and transport have so shrunk the world that we are all hiving in each other’s back yards. This ‘international crowding’ calls for the establishment of some authority which can both give direction and keep order. In this new world situation which has suddenly arisen, there is urgent need for some impartial and representative body with the ability, the integrity and tire authority t-o ‘ impose regulations and direct the world for its own good.’ “The fact of the stiutaion is that our mechanical and economic progress in the international sphere has outdistanced our moral progress. In the two former departments of life, we are well into the international era, whereas our morality one to another still belongs to the tribal stage. We are overdue for a great moral advance in our international dealings. We need, most urgently, some effective machinery for dealing with the problems which inevitably arise from the close association of nation with nation. The League alone presents the hope of the fulfilment of such a need. The Financial Question. “But of course there is always the financial question- Can New Zealand afford, especially in these hard times, to maintain her position in such a League? As far as I can gather, the present cost to our country works out at something less than three iarthings per head per annum! 1 am not a wealthy man, but I would be prepared to go even as far as contributing a whole penny per annum towards the cost of effective machinery for dealing justly with international disputes. “I have been impressed with some figures quoted in connection with recent disarmament negotiations. It was authoritatively stated that if all the nations were to agree to divert to the funds of the League of Nations for one year the amount that they would otherwise be spending on armaments, the sum thus pooled would pay the whole expenses of the League, the Permanent Court of International Justice, and the International Tmbour Office for well over six hundred years. Surely when our leading financiers and economists, not to mention the hard-hit rank and file of our taxpayers, realise the enormous liberation from financial burdens which would result from ’the substitution of such an international court, for the resort to armed force, they will make more strenuous and intelligent efforts to bring such a change about. Hindering Forces. “Of course there are very real forces which arc hindering such a development in international relationships. Two nf the main ones arc:—(l) Fear; and (2) vested interests. And it is a sad reflection on human nature when, under the influence of either of these forces, men have been found to act. quite unscrupulously. During the late war the fea« constantly arose thalt we might not hate our enemies sufficiently to be eager to go on fighting them. So ‘propaganda.’ which is often a euphemism for organised lying, xvas resorted to in order that our irrational emotions might be so aroused that our natural kindliness and common sense should be pu't out of action. Thus the wonderful and marvellously improbable (and perfectly unfounded) German Corpse Factor}’ myth was invented so that me minht feel such a horror of our inhuman enemies that the idea of their coming ever to rule over us was perfectly unthinkable. “The history of another 'German horror’ is rather interesting. When the Germans captured Antwerp, a German paper stated that “all the church were rung,’ meaning, quite obviously, the bells of the churches throughout Germany, which were peeled for joy. A French paper got hold of the statement and interpreted it to mean that fhe Belgian clergy of Antwerp were

compelled to ring their church bells. An English paper (The Times, in fact) quoted the French paper, and added that the priests who refused to ring the bells were turned out of office. An Italian paper quoted The Times, and said that the priests w’Pre sentenced to hard labour. Finally, the same French paper which had started it all, quoting the Italian paper, said that ve had now conclusive evidence from a most reliable source that, the patriotic priests who had refused to ring the joy bells at the entrance of the German forces into Antwerp had been punished bybeing battered to destruction and hung head downwards to net as living clappers to their own church bells! Vested Interests. ‘‘But of course, in time, war. we must be thus whipped up to hatred, or else wo might begin to think that the game wasn’t worth the candle, and so might stop fighting—which, of course, wauld be dreadful! The tactics adopted by vested interests have been just as unscrupulous. Perhaps some of you have heard of an interesting gentleman named William Shearer, who attracted a good deal of attention by suing some of tho largest. American steel manufacturers because, he alleged, they had not paid him nearly as much as they promised for his attempts to wreck the Three-Power Naval Conference between the. United States, Britain and Japan, in 1927. Th-o facts disclosed were so startling that President Hoover set up a Senate Commission to igb into the whole matter, and some further very interesting ‘inner history’ came to light“Mr. Shearer, it seems, had been so successful in stirring up feeling against Britain that the American Navy Bill went through Congress with unexpected ease. The means he adopted was the circulation, confidentially, through the lobbies of Congress, of a most surprising document, purporting to emanaite from the ‘head of the British secret service’ in America. It disclosed the most fell designs on the innocent citizens of the United States by the treacherous Britishers. When it was tracked down, this document proved to have been written as a joke by a satirical Irish doctor in New York! But, of course, if you can only arouse the emotion of fear (especially of the unknown) you can safely count on an unlimited quantity of credulity, even in politicians. And the ‘innocent citizens of the United States’ are still paying their ‘Navy Bill’ to the tune of goodness knows how many millions, and to the enhanced prosperity of the steel magnates New Zealand's Place. “But what has all this to do with New Zealand’s place in the League of Nations? The connection is real, if not immediately obvious. If any country is to act succesfully a»s an arbitrator in international disputes, it must be one which is not an object of fear and which is as free aa possible from the grip of vested interests. It was for this cause that Switzerland was chosen a.s the headquarters of the League in Europe. It has often, and with disturbing and growing clearness, been pointed out that the centre of world events is shifting from Europe to the Pacific. Crises of tremendous international moment have arisen and threaten to arise round the wide rim of the Pacific. Now I suppose that, even should we puff ourselves out like the fabled irog, we could not persuade ourselves that anybody was realty frightened of us“Owing to our insignificance and our isolated position, we are mercifully free from any very strong grip of vested interests. May it not be possible then (I almost said inevitable) that to New Zealand will fall the lot of being the ‘Switzerland of tlxa Pacific’? I can see other land which is so well suited to be the headquarters of an international tribunal for the countries bordering this ocean. We have already a certain reputation for integrity and fair-mindedness, and are in a position to be more disinterested than any other country on this side of the world. Dare we seek or accept such as position as the centre of the League’s activities in the Pacific? I venture to think we will have to face that question before long, and that an answer in the affirmative would be acceptable to most, if not all the countries concerned. “But much remains to be done to make ourselves ready if we are to be worthy of such a responsibility. In order that we may be trusted, we must grow in fair-mindedness. There must be in us no suspicion of bias or prejudice. In order to understand, we must cultivate an intelligent interest in international affairs. And we must have a real and burning desire for justice, so that all who seek it may have a fair hearing, without fear or favour. “1 am conscious of the fact that, as a people, we have a very long way to go before we should be completely worthy to be the homo of the International Court of the Pacific. But I believe the chance may be ours—the chance of taking a unique place in the League of Nations, and of making a real and splendid contribution to the peace and well-being of the world”