TWENTY-ONE YEARS AFTER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 181, 5 August 1935, Page 6

TWENTY-ONE YEARS AFTER

’TWENTY-ONE years ago the World War burst into flames, and to-day, to use the words of the British Minister for Foreign Affairs (Sir Samuel Hoare) “in the Government’s view the state of Europe remains one of gloom and apprehension. On the occasion of last year’s anniversary, a Nazi assassin’s bullet in Austria, which laid low the Chancellor, Dr. Dolli'uss, threatened world peace, while to-day Italy appears bent on a policy of conquest in Abyssinia, thereby menacing international relations. The world spends to-day much more on armaments than it did in 1914, and it seems quite incapable of breaking the spell. Yet in spite of this, during the 21 years that have passed, the nations have dreamed of a reign of law not based on the mailed fist, and this dream lias found expression in the League of Nations. The League has led a much less active existence than its friends desired, but to-day, twenty-one years after the war to end wars, it holds the stage as the main hope of the long-looked-for peace that still seems so far away. The safety of civilisation hangs by a thin thread. Will it be strengthened or