LEAGUE OF NATIONS

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 160, 2 April 1921, Page 7

LEAGUE OF NATIONS

e LORD ROBERT CECIL REPLIES TO AUSTRALIAN DELEGATE

ONLY AIM TO RENDER WAR LESS PROBABLE

QUESTION OF INCLUDING GERMANY

By Telegraph—Press Association-Copyright. (Rec. April 1, 5.5 p.m.) London, March 31.

Lord Robert Cecil, interviewed by a representative of the Australian Press Association, eaid he was surprised to read Senator Millen’s expression of disappointment and depression over the < League of Nation’s conferences at Geneva. - On the contrary, the assembly’s success had encouraged the majority of the delegates. Possibly Senator Millen’s disappointment arose through expectation of something differing from what the .covenant contemplated. Apparently Senator Millen thought that the League, if effective, ought to have raised fifty thousand troops to protect Armenia, while Mr. Hughes compla.ined of its failure tn assist Poland, indicating that both hoped for a League forming a super-State. and commanding troops able to impose its will on recalcitrant nations forcibly. Such an organisation would be possibly advantageous, but the League Covenant did not contemplate anything of the kind. The League’s only aim was to render war less probable, contemplating coercion solely in the event of a member plung- , ing into war without allowing the League Council or the International Court to investigate the vasu» lelli. Otherwise members’ independence and sovereignty were entirely untouched. The Geneva meetings chief sucecs arose from the encouragement of international co-operation and the free and open discussion of world problems threatening the maintenance of peace. Undoubtedly the conference did a great deal to assuage the bitterness of war created particularly among the small Powers of Central and Eastern Europe, through freedom of intercourse and the removal of misunderstanding. More- ' over, the foundations had been laid in the direction of international, co-opera-tion relating to health, and transit, and ■ the establishment of an International Court of Justice. "I notice that the Australian statesmen emphatically «e--pudiate the idea of admitting Germany to the League,” added Lord Robert Cecil. "Possibly Australia does not realise the urgent need for the pacification of . Europe, like those residing therein. Nevertheless, I am convinced that real ‘ peace is the present day’s most urgent need, and it is unobtainable without a whole-hearted aceeptance of the League, the efficiency of which directly depends on the inclusion of the world’s great nations. Germany’s inclusion at present may be impossible. •If so, this is a great misfortune* which, in my judgment, every patriotic Britisher ought to do his utmost to remove nt the earliest possible moment.”—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.