Why Do Wars Continue?

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 4, 28 September 1937, Page 9

Why Do Wars Continue?

FAILURE OF LEAGUE PLAN I Important Thing is to Find What to Blame A NEW LEAGUE? ."The important thing ls to find ' not who to blame, but what to blame," said Mr W. A. Cf. Penlington, Principal of the Hastings High School, in on address to the Napier Rotaxy Cluto, asf in the conrse of an address ou "The Peace of the World," he examined the f ailure of coUlective security . and suggested remedies. Mr Penlington emphasised that collective security was workable only with complete . frankness and free' commitments to definite courses of action hy the contracting nations. In liis iutroductory remarks, the speaker commented that the ' subject appealed to him as one who, to a certain extent, had the destiny of the rising generation in his hands, in his capacity as an educator. It was ho-ped that from the distrust and confusion at present existing in iiiternational affairs there would emerge, clarified, those underlying prihciples of -peace that are right, not only here and now, but every where and always. If those underlying principles were not recognised,. it was quite possible for weli-meanmg nations or individuals to blindly follow the path that will eventually lead to war. "At the end of the Great War," he continued, "the world and the nations had been so liorrified that they formed a plan that they hoped would end war. That plan, at the time, the most optimistic of us hoped would succeed, but now, even the most optimistic of us must realise that it had failed. "Now there is bewilderment and scheming fear, and the nations tend to resort to war as a reasonabie means of settling differences. 'What is. the good of - bringmg up young children, and amassing big businesses if in a day the lives are to be destroyed and the businesses destroyed m sxnok:ep'

Collective Security. The League of Nations had worked upon the principle of referring all disputes to a third party, in this case the council of the nations, as iinpartia.1 judges, in. the same manner as .civil disptues ate.referfed to judge.;or niagi^trate. The nations possessed no international police force, equivalent to the iaw-enfblteisg weapbn of the -eivil autho-* „ ; rities df e^,ch ^nalwnjV -but ^tQ baqk the plan tli^^v^lved^ A-'sy^tJiu bf ' bdlle'ctive security'^ '-giibkt, Jthey > agreed* tliat anyone acliiig in "a manner calculated to disturb ;the peace of the world would be severely haudled, and that ^in nations would all unite to do so. The flaw in the arrangement was that m forcrng :the wishes oi the League' upon a ^Tecalcitrant nation, tliere was always ' -the possibiiity that the means employed wdyld'' turh ♦ against tbose imposing them, and cause iiarm. When fche occasion arose for the putting into oifect of the, agreement, it was. lound that some of the members were afraid of being hurt themselves. This had occurreU in major crises — the Sinodapanese trouble regarding Axanchuna, and the Abyssinian war. Tbis, bowever, did not mean tbat tbe League of Nations was a -complete -f ailure/ as tbere was plenty of scope for its actions in otber directions. Matters -of bealth and transport were now so international in outiook that the nations must wcrk together with them. ' ** , • "Then why do wars "continue?" asked the speaker. "People 'are always inclined to look for a scapegoat. Sonio blame the , troub'le upon the capit-xJist,. some upon the communjst, some. upon the Jews, some upon the bankera. Some will blame one nation' and - some another. The important thing is to lind not who to blame, but what to biame. Wars are not made by 'good' nations or 'bad' nations — tbey are made by nations who are perfectly assured tliat they are justiiied and right." The reluctant-Q of the peqples of mun.v nations to be bound by foreign commitments, due to a faulty conception by the man in the street of some pf tbo fundamental principles of • collective security, was perhaps tbe main cause of tbe i'aiiure of the method in the past. This migbt soiind to-be a very reasonabJo feeling, but it was a short-sigbted one. Reluctance to commit onesclf to a certain course of international action was not conducive to peace, and freedom from foreign commitments by no means assured peace.

Must Be Frankness • If Mussoliui had knowii, when be > 1 1 drbb couteiupluted Ihe action he toolc iu regard td Abyssinia, tliat the otlu-i' nations would take Btroiig action lnj would never have coiuuieiiced his campaigu. If the i'uture was to bring any good in the wav of collective security, a complete understanding must be reached between the nations regarding the action to be taken, and above all there must be frankness and free commitment. In collective security, nations were called upon to stand up for a principle. Ihe questions bad been asked: "Would New Zealand figbt for Abyssinia?; would Kew Zealand bght for Litbuania?" Yet tbe country involved did not matter: tbe principle was worth fighting for. The question was notwbetber it-was right to take military action to de.fend Abyssinia, but to deI'end collective sex-urity, sometbiiig ver.v mucb more vahiable Gerniany's growing deniands for ttn5 iqstitution of ber colonies were mentioned by Mr. Penlington, who stated I (bat wbile ber need for colonies was not I so great as she appeared to imagiue, j •he belief by th© German people tbat

it was important was sufficient to pro\dde a cause of war. "Colonies do not, never have, and never will, serve as an outlet, a sudden outlet, for millions of people," be said. "Before the war, in all tbe German colonies there were only 24,000 -Gfirmaiis settled, and there . were more GermanS permanently living in Paris at the outbreak of war than tbero were in all ber colonies. "In Italy's colonies before tbo war there were only 8,000 Italians, and there wero 50 iiines that number in the state of New York alone. "The need for raw materials is not , sufficient justiiication for a demand for ' colonies. Before the war "Germany 's colonies furnished her with only onehalf per cent. of her iniports, and absorbed only one per cent. of her imports. It is not necessary to have colonies to have raw materials. Take the case of those countries that have iio colonies at all, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland — those countries are not poverty-stricken, they are the most prosperous and up-to-date in Europe. " *

New Zealand's Suggestion, In emphasising the iaet that the voice of the people should be the ultimate deciding factor, the speaker ref erred to the suggestions advanced by New Zealand .to the League of Nations that" a poriodical plebiscite of the people should be taken to enable coun- • tries to aet on questions of collective security at once, and' with the knowledge that the action df their 'diplomats was endorsed by a majority of tlio people. New Zealand, he said, had a voice on the League, and alth'ough she was a small country, at times a sniall voice could be very effective. kar away from the centre df racial hatreds, the Dominion was in a- position to approach the matter elearly and logically. The speaker suggested that if the League would not function as it should, a new one should be formed, composed of the democracies of the world, and free -from the warring of the dictatorships of Italy, Geraiany, and to a certain extent, Japan. The two great democracies of the British Empire and the United States would be irresistible as a force for world peace, and he was of the opinion that in the present indications of a rapprochement by means of trade agreements between . America and Britain, it would be, adyisable if necessary to make some sacrifice if it would ensure closer co-op'eration between the two countries. The speaker was accord-pd a very hearty voto of thanks, on the motion of Rotariab P, W. Peters.