THE RULE OF LAW

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 72, 17 December 1937, Page 4

THE RULE OF LAW

vThere was a time when flrm and united aotion by League of Nations States could have localised and stamped out war anywhere. That time may come again, but it is not now. Nor is a league of democracies against dictatorships to be advocated qn any ground. A nation's form of government is its own concern, and the creation of leagues of rival creeds could only precipitate war. But a league of law-abiding States, able to rely on one another's good faith in their mutual dealings, there must be. They may be democracies ; they may like Turkey, or Jugoslavia, be virtual dictatorships. What unites them is respect for law in their external relations. It was to provide the maehinery for co-operation betwCen such States that the League oi Nations was created, and that purpose at least it can serve effectively still. "It is unfortunate that the defection of Germany, Japan and Italy leaves predominant at Geneva the three Great Powers who fought as allies in the war. That makes it all too easy to misrepresent the League of Nations as a league of victors. * It is in no Sense that. It is a league of States which have pledged themselves to m&intain the reign of law. By the letter of the Covenant they are pledged not merely to observe it themselves but to go some way towards compelling its general ohservance. To attempt that to-day might be to plunge the world in worse evils than it suffers from already. But lawlessness may at any moment become a challenge that can no Iqnger be evaded. There must be a league against the lawless, but its basis must be nol a coia|O0ii politieal ideolegy bttt a mpecj iof la.Wi"=-EngliBh papcr,