GERMANY AND THE LEAGUE.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160811, 19 November 1920, Page 4

GERMANY AND THE LEAGUE.

Speaking at the League on Wednesday, an Argentina representative urged that all soverign States should be permitted to join the League, as the exclusion of , certain States might provoke the establishment of another League, also that the present League might be regarded as an alliance for the liquidation of war, rather than a powerful organisation to ensure peace. This was no doubt intended as a special plea for the admission of Germany, for which the covenant of the League already provides. Allied opinion, however, is still divided on the matter. Germany naturally wishes to join the League without delay, but France, on the other hand, wishes to postpone her entry as long as possible, arguing, with some Justice, that until Germany has compleiely fulfilled the terms imposed on her, the performance of some of which may extend over years, her position in the.. League would be anomalous, and might make it difficult to bring pressure to bear on her. The attitude of Britain has always' been clear. Germany’s admission is to depend on herself. She will be welcomed when she can give solid guarantees that she will observe the letter and the spirit of the covenant, and hot before. But all shades of British opinion contemplate GeTr many’s early entry, holding that a League Nations which excludes Germany is foredoomed to failure. They hold the same view as that expressed by the Argentina representative, that such a body would be no more than a system of alliances which would provoke counter-alli-ances; it would inevitably drive Germany and probably Russia into each other’s arms, and the result would be a vast bloc stretching from the North Sea to the Nacific. Doubtless one of the big questions to be decided by the League at Its present sittings will be when Germany will be admitted into the League.