THE WAIKATO TIMES THURSDAY, JULY 25, 1935. THE LEAGUE AND PEACE.

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19637, 25 July 1935, Page 6

THE WAIKATO TIMES THURSDAY, JULY 25, 1935. THE LEAGUE AND PEACE.

That the desires of the British people are wholehearted y se in the direction of peace was shown by the ballot recently* con ducted throughout Britain, the result of which was conveyed by an influential deputation to British Ministers in Loudon on Mon ay evening. The ballot was a big undertaking, but it was caniec through with enthusiasm, and the result must be aeknowlcdgec as irrefutable evidence that the British /'people are still disposed to place hope in the League of Nations.

The deputation speakers in no way criticised the attitude o the National Government towards international problems. . e y recognised what the Prime Minister, Mr Stanley Baldwin, pointec out, that Britain’s policy throughout has been consistent with t e League Covenant. This has been shown by declaration and y action. She has no desire to dodge her obligations under t e Covenant, but she cannot herself stand surety for the preservation of the peace of Europe; her co-signatories must shoulder their portion of the burden.

Just at present the League is faced with a severe test; much depends on the events of the next few weeks. It is, therefore, gratifying to have the assurance that Britain and France are .in accord, and they will probably attract to themselves other countries which are inclined to falter at the time of crisis.

The League is by . no means an impotent body, and if its members stand true to their commitments it may yet avert a throatene calamity. Article 16 of the Covenant, which provides for the imposition of financial and economic -sanctions on an aggressor, has never been invoked. The League has fought shy of it on various grounds —that it is too complex in its nature to be practicable, that it might have the effect of spreading the - area of a war it was designed to avert, and others. There is the more reason, then, to seek a check on the war-maker which can be readily applied and of which the effects can with accuracy be calculated.

Sir Thomas Holland, the principal of Edinburgh University, has suggested that such a check can be found in an agreement among the nations to refuse supplies of minerals-to an aggressor. This plan, to which General Smuts has given the name “ The Mineral Sanction,” is explained in a little volume with that title by Sir Thomas Holland. Its argument is simple and cogent. The mechanisation of all forms of armament makes the nations dependent, m war, on a supply of minerals of all sorts that may be anything from live to twenty-five times greater than their peace-time needs. No country in the world, not even the United States or the British Empire, with their enormous mineral'resources, possesses the full variety of supplies needed for modern armament manufacture. If, therefore, by common consent supplies of minerals are withheld from a belligerent the arm of the law-breaker will be paralysed.

The plan has the great merit of simplicity." It avoids difficult and dangerous disputes over wlmt is contraband or conditional contraband. Yet on Sir Thomas’ evidence it would achieve its end oven if'no other nations than the British Commonwealth and the United States subscribed to it.

This, then, is one direction in which the League could easily deal with an aggressor, for action along the fines suggested comes well within the ambit of the Covenant.