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Hokitika Guardian, 13 December 1933, Page 4

There lias recently grown up at Geneva and elsewhere a tendency to revert to the old diplomatic methods, writes Viscount Cecil. In the old time the conception was that an international conference consisted of a few distinguished persons, representing the Great Powers, who sat behind closed doors and decided on the fate of the peoples of the world. One of the purposes of the League of Nations was to put an end to that system and substitute “open covenants -openly arrived at.” The advantages are manifold. Misunderstandings are less likely. There is less opportunity for intrigue. Above all. the public opinion of all countries is fully informed not' only of the decisions arrived at, hut also i of the reasons which led up to them. It is sometimes objected that if a country takes up in public a position it is difficult for her to withdraw from it even if it turns out to he indefensible. That is not my experience. On the contrary a negotiation can without humiliation ?nd without misconception in his own country yield to the argumentative pressure by other speakers in public when it would ho difficult for him to do so under conditions which concealed from his own countrymen the strength of the opposing ease. Moreover, the fact that a statement is to he exposed to. the appreciation and criticism of the whole world produces great caution in its utterance. It- is far easier to be unreason able in private than in public. Finally, formal private negotiations never are private.’ Instead of one impartial report there are a number of unofficial reports, e"ch coloured 'hv the source from which it comes. '