PREPARING TREATY.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17997, 16 April 1930, Page 5

PREPARING TREATY.

MR HOOVER’S VIEWS

METHODICAL PROCEDURE. PEACE FORCES STRENGTHENED. United Press Assn.—Elec. TeL —Copyright. WASHINGTON, April 14. The President of the United States, Mr Hoover, to-day addressed the National Society of Daughters of the Revolution' He said it was easy to preach' the national duty of helping to preserve peace. It was easier still to engage in invective or vindictive phraseology which would stir up national selfishness and self-righteous-ness.

Certainly the way of peace lay neither in the rattling of the scabbard nor in the abandonment 'of defence. America was sincere when she signed the Briand-Kellogg Pact, and she engaged her national honour when she ratified it. They must cultivate methodical procedure by which controversies between nations could be settled by pacific means. Until the peace machinery had been developed and tested over a long period of years they must maintain such defence forces as would prevent the penetration of a hostile force. All the world needed relief from the burden of arms, but disarmament could not accomplish it unless it were conducted by agreement among the nations.

Mr Hoover defended what had been accomplished at the Naval Conference in London as being in accord with America’s precaution for national defence and her efforts to bring about the maintenance of world peace. “We have been able to create a situation in which there is neither inferiority nor superiority in America’s naval strength,” said the President. “This is in agreement wtii the Briand-Kellogg Pact, by signing which we pledged ourselves to use arms solely for defence.

“We are stronger in defence as a result of the Conference' It is an accomplishment which I believe will appeal to the people of America. Through this agreement we have strengthened the forces of peace. “In all the discussions as to the participation of the United States in the World Court,” continued Mr Hoover, “there have been persons who have not agreed upon the desirability and necessity of such a Court as one of the additions to our methods of pacific settlement of disputes. “I have no doubt that the details of the social stipulations under which wc should join the Court can be solved and that the United States will become a member of it.

“Our American people want peace in the world not alone as a matter of material interest to our prosperity and welfare, but because the gains to the moral and spiritual forces of the world are made through peace, not through war.”