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Hokitika Guardian, 19 January 1926, Page 2

'When the League of Nations was first established .some over-sanguine enthusiasts seemed to imagine that the Golden Age would materialise forthwith. It has not done so. and latterly there has been a tendency to go to the other extreme, and to regard the League as a well-meaning, but rather ncademie body, whose activities

have little practical value. Those who are skeptical about, the utility of the ■ League, says a reviewer, should read “Reconstruction,” by Mr Maurice Fanshawe, and when they have learned exactly what it has done they may he inclined to change their opinion. Mr Fans] mwe deserilves its coiistitustitution and various organs and commissions which it has established to deal with particular matters. He then proceeds to enumerate achievements of the League in the first five years of its existence. Of these the most important have been its .successful mediation in the Silesian and the Aaland Islands dispute, and its restoration of the Austrian and the Hungarian finances. It has to its credit humanitarian and hygenic uorlof immense value and has taken systematic measures for the suppression of international aliases. It has to admit one failure. It was unable to compose the dispute between Poland and Lithuania in regard to the possession ol Vilna. hut this was due to circumstances beyond its control, namely, the delay in fixing the Polish frontrIt did not deal with the Corfu incident in which Italy and Greece were concerned n 1923'. but Hr Nansen voiced a large body of opinion in the Assembly when ho deplored the transb'c- of this question to the Council n f Ambassadors. Tn 1921 Serbia and Albania had a disagreement over their boundary, and a collision seemed imminent. The mere threat hv the Lon. guo that it would make use of its wen pon of economic blockade had an immediate pacific effect. And bad Mr Fanshawe written his hook a little Intoi', he could have pointed to another feather in the League’s cap. nanielv. its successful intervention a Pm weeks ago in the Oreero-Pmlgariaii affair.