INTERNATIONAL OUTLOOK

Wairarapa Daily Times, 20 February 1935, Page 2

INTERNATIONAL OUTLOOK

REVIEW BY PRIME MINISTER. In a lengthy statement issued in Wellington yesterday, the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes) reviewed the international outlook and discussed the proposals for a mutual guarantee against air attack to which Great Britain is a party and the extent to which New Zealand is involved in this development. ' At the outset, Mr Forbes dealt with the foundation of the League of Nations, with the weakening of the international organisation at its inception by the non-participation of a number of great nations and with the various attempts that have been made to give force and weight to the Covenant of the League. Having dealt with these and other questions in detail, the Prime Minister outlined the proposal now under consideration by the Locarno Powers that they should individually guarantee each of their number against unprovoked aggression by air. A very important point to consider, he said, was that unless the mere existence of these guarantees was sufficient to prevent the unprovoked aggression which it was intended to prevent, then the inevitable consequence of the application of such guarantees as Locarno and the present proposals was war. ‘‘That is the problem,” Mr Forbes observed, “and on the one side you will find numbers who regard as an absurdity any suggestion that one way to prevent war is to go to war, and on the other a group of people who hold the view that until the efforts of mankind to prevent war can be supported if necessary by the application of force they can novel* be effective.” “My final comment,” the Prime Minister said in concluding, “is addressed directly to the people of this country. The British Dominions are not parties to this proposed pact, just as they were not parties to the Treaty of Locarno, but if the arrangement comes into force, and if ever the nations that are parties to the arrangement are required to apply the proposed guarantees, then there must be no blinking the fact that if Great Britain became involved in war New Zealand would also be involved. This is so, not only because of the legal position as we accept it in New Zealand (though there is some difference of opinion on this matter in certain other Dominions), it is so because the sentiment of this country would inevitably insist on New Zealand standing shoulder to shoulder with Great Britain in such circumstances; and, oven were these two reasons absent, any catastrophe that affects Great Britain must inevitably affect New Zealand also, bound up as we are in the welfare of the Old Country. “I do not wish to discuss these questions at any greater length. The Government have been, of course, fully informed by his Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom, and we must necessarily observe the confidential nature of many of the communications received, but I do wish our people to know of the numerous and difficult questions involved in the present situation.

“Whatever one’s point of view, I am confident that all will share the opinion that the Old Country has once again taken a bold and courageous step, and has again shown her willingness to face a risk in the interests of world peace and the security of mankind.”