The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1929. EUROPEAN MINORITIES.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 November 1929, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1929. EUROPEAN MINORITIES.

At a time when the principal Powers o! the world, having renounced the practice ol war as an instrument of national policy, are addressing themselves to the consideration of means by which they may the better give effect to their solemn resolution, there may be a tendency to assume that the last great war has definitely been fought and that the wounds that were indicted in it have either been healed or arc in process of being healed. Armistice Commemoration Day, considers the Otago Times, furnishes a

suitable occasion for surveying a world which was to be made safe for democracy. And it would he idle to attempt to ignore the fact that there arc minorities among the populations of some of the Kuropean States that nurse serious grievances and that complain bitterly of being oppressed and wronged by the authorities in their respective countries. The existence of these disaffected minorities constitutes one of the grave problems with which the League of Nations is at the present time i mufrouted. When the Groat War came to an end it was generally

hoped that it would be the last war, bm everyone, as a writer in the Contemporary Review points out, had a different method of achieving this result.. M. Clen.enceau wished to see Germany dismembered and bankrupt in order that Europe might forthwith became a haven of peace; Mr Lloyd George was willing to give subject nations generous terms, but lacked the freedom- ne-essnry to enable him to do so; President Wihon clung to his principle of “self-determination,” until it went bv the board before the intensity of his colleagues’ opposition. The outcome was that Europe was repartitioned in such, a way that large' portions of' Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Bulgaria , were sliced off and given to neighbouring States of foreign race and tongue. “A million G'eimans were left under Poland, and about the same minuter of .Hun garians were made to swear allegiance to Human in. Czecho-slovakia .absorbed three million Germans and .nearly one mil lon Hungarians'; whilst a similar pro css was canned through with regard to Bulgarians in Jugo-Slavia. Rumania, and Greece; and in the Tyrol, and with the Germans in Alsace. In all there must be some ten million of this class of minorities out of a total of about double that number in Europe.” I« notion was inevitable, and that oeasionnl cabled reports of infernal strife in European States prove that the passing years have not smoothed out the difficult; os. It seems that certain of the minorities are still oppressed, their homes are still in danger, and the nations to which they were allotted are stil unable to reconcile them to the conditions that were forced on 'them by the peace settlement. In 1920 the Council of the League of Nations adopted a report in wlneli it was laid down that “the League must ascertain that the jxrovisions for the protection of minorities are always observed,” but the League has not yet been able to take effective steps to secure that this decision shall be honoured. The Council examines the petitions of minorities that have found the conditions so unjust, harsh, and intolerable that, having nothing to loco, they can afford an open appeal, but otherwise the Council is not officially aware of the existen e of causes for discontent and resentment in the States flint are concerned. It would be optimistic, however, to imagine that- world peace can Ire satisfactorily secured while there are wounds in lbiii ope affecting millions of people that have not been healed.