The Waikato Times WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 1939 EXILE OF THE LEAGUE?

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20784, 19 April 1939, Page 6

The Waikato Times WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 1939 EXILE OF THE LEAGUE?

No more striking illustration of the state of nerves in Europe s imaginable than the advice from Switzerland that in the event of war the International Labour Office of the League of Nations must ie removed from Switzerland within 24 hours. It is feared that the con mue presence of the office might compromise Swiss neutrality ! incidentally, it is an indication of* the complete change of opinion in the totalitarian States since the days when the League of Nations was looked upon as the sheet anchor of peace and the head centre o in einational amity. Time was when any nation would have been proud to have the League headquarters established within its borders. Now it is something that may attract the wrath of some of the world s greatest Powers !

The question naturally arises whether Switzerland’s nervousness and desire to avoid offending Germany and Italy will lead to the removal of the League from Geneva whether there is war or not. The two dictatorships will no doubt now increase their agitation to have a hated institution abolished altogether. Are those magnificent palaces of peace to fall into disuse and decay? The great ideal represented by the institution of the League has been dimmed and weakened by the greed and the churlishness of ambitious national leaders, though it burns as steadily as ever in the hearts of millions of people all over the world. Are a few men to be allowed to destroy the League entirely, or will public opinion eventually come to the rescue and replace the present hatred with a new appreciation of "what the Palace of Peace stands for 7

Some may see in Switzerland’s request a weakening of that country’s support of the League in common with the trend in many other countries. Others will contend that Germany and Italy have browbeaten the smaller nation into a state of fear. In any case the International Labour Office, one of the few remaining active branches of the League, is seelung emergency quarters somewhere in the heart of I’ ranee. It may be suggested that Britain should become the new home of the League, or, greatest irony of all, that America should offer it sanctuary. Much of Europe’s gold and many of its art treasures Lave been sent to the United States for safe keeping. Has Europe at last been brought to such a pass that it must at the behest of the dictators even export the greatest ideal ever conceived by the nations because it is a dangerous, unwanted thing? It is strange that the troubled peoples of Europe have not long ago determined rather to send into exile the few men who have created the rampant terror. If that were done the League would be safe at Geneva, for it is wanted by all the common peoples. In the eyes of the dictators the League represents all that they hate in the Treaty of Versailles, and they apparently will never be satisfied until it is hounded out of Europe. It is Communistic and Red—a red rag to the bulls of Germany, Italy and Japan.