The Guardian AND EVENING STAR, With which is incorporated “The West Coast Times." THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 1921.

Hokitika Guardian, 31 March 1921, Page 2

The Guardian AND EVENING STAR, With which is incorporated “The West Coast Times." THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 1921.

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. Thk hopes and expectations with ilgard to the efficiency of the League of Nations as an instrument to enforce peace on tdie world, are not in prospect for early realisation. Mr Milieu who was the chief spokesman for the Australian Commonwealth at the Genet a sitting, returned home with the impression that the British Empire was the most effective League of Nations t,o be seriously considered. It must not he thought, however, that the League is a vague and indefinite association of nations. The League is in being. The League of Nations formally began its existence on .January 10, 1920. Already it has performed useful work, tin' nature and extent of which has perhaps been insufficiently realised by tlie world at large, and it was a happy thought of its organisers to describe, in a recent publication. "The League of Nation* Starts" what it lias done, and what it hopes to do in the immediate future, and to indicate some ot the problems which it is now attempting to Milv. Th" i-ontrihutors. British, Erem-li. American. Belgian and 'Jpanbh are men who are of the League and have practical experience of its operations. The subjects dealt with include the general structure of the League, the Permanent Court of International .Justice, th ( . International Administration of Danzig and the Saar Valiev, Reduction of Armaments, the International Labour Organisation. Public Health and the League, Transport and Communications. and Economics and Finance—the last in a particularly interesting article iu which Mr J. A. Salter confirms Mr Hoovers statement that the population of Europe i- s :| t least 100 millions greater than can be supported without imports. and is. therefore dependent on th,. production and sale of exports, but that Europe is not producing sufficient exportable goods, and is not within measurable distance of being able to do so. A foreword warns us against exaggerated estimates of the immediate possibilities of the League, and also against undue depression at its seeming setbacks. “The fair measure to apply is to ask not if it lias done everything tluu lay open to it to do. but rather if its creation lias made the world a little better than it used to be. In other wor<L. we must strike a broad average of accomplishment for the League just as we strike a broad average of accomplishment for a National Government. If we do not hold the latter a complete failure for not having averted crime or suppressed corruption, so we must give the League that same generous allowance for human fallibility, remembering above all else that it is but at the beginning of its development.’' Altogether, the account is an admirable symposium, packed wii useful information. It suggests that judgment on the work of the League should not be arrived at- hurriedly, fts scope brings about quite a new order of things, involving fresh machinery for international overtures. This will all take time to effect and secure smooth running. The hopes and expectations for tile future of the League might still be fortified by I'aitfi, for the good seed is sown and much of it is on good ground, and a harvest of goodwill should yet be reaped internationally. Good sense and sound judgment point in that direction already.